Knowledge of kinship and specific relationships was more highly developed in Wales at one time. That is because the original Welsh Laws on Intestacy allowed up to third cousins to inherit an estate if no closer relative were found. Furthermore, the ancient Laws allowed a person to call upon cousins to stand in for that person (to pay debts, or even serve gaol sentences, for example, on the person's behalf).

A "'Welsh Aunty" is a relationship unlikely to be found in the census because they did not normally live as part of the household. It was the 'courtesy title' given by children to a female who was a close family friend of the parents, but not a family relative. Before social conventions relaxed and older people started to be referred to by their first names, children addressed adults outside the family as 'Mr.' or Mrs.' But where their parents were on first-name terms in a close friendship with a person (often a neighbour), the children called that person 'Aunty Jane', for example. In Welsh-speaking families, she would have been called 'Bopa Jane'.

The Welsh word 'bopa' or 'boba' is strictly translated as either an 'auntie' or an 'old lady'.