Girl's name
Dearbhla
“DER-vla”
'daughter of a poet' or 'true desire'
Why it is said that way
The bh is a v: DER-vla. Dervla is the same name spelled for English.
- bh, mh → v — or w in the middle of a word
The story behind the name
St Dearbhla of Mayo, whose well and church stand at Fallmore on the Mullet peninsula, is said to have torn out her own eyes to repel a suitor — and to have had her sight restored at the well. The travel writer Dervla Murphy made the name known worldwide.
Where the name belongs
Famous people with this name
- Dearbhla Walsh (born 1960) — Irish film director
- Dearbhla Molloy (born 1946) — Irish actress
Irish people with an English Wikipedia article whose given name is recorded as Dearbhla on Wikidata; descriptions from Wikidata.
Meanings follow Ó Corráin & Maguire's Irish Names and Woulfe; pronunciations give the commonest Irish-English form. Know this name better — a dialect pronunciation, a family tradition? Tell us. · All Irish names A–Z