Irish names starting with M

The M names in brief

• Macha · “MAH-kha” · Girl's name
  A name of disputed origin, borne by several figures who merge into one. The sovereignty goddess of Ulster, and the reason two of its greatest places carry her name: Eamhain Mhacha, Navan Fort, and Ard Mhacha, Armagh. Several different Machas appear in the literature and scholars have long argued whether they are one figure or many.
• Maghnus · “MAN-us” · Boy's name · also Manus, Magnus
  From Latin magnus, 'great', via Norse Magnús. Manus O'Donnell, lord of Tír Chonaill, was a warrior who also commissioned and part-wrote 'Betha Colaim Chille', a life of Colmcille, in 1532: a Gaelic prince who cared about literature as much as cattle.
• Máible · “MAW-bil-eh” · Girl's name · also Mabel
  From Latin amabilis, 'loveable' — shortened from Amabel. The Irish Mabel. The longer original, Amabel, was worn down to its middle syllables and never recovered them.
• Máire · “MOY-ra” · Girl's name · also Maire, Moira, Maura, Mary
  The Irish form of Mary. For centuries the single commonest name for an Irish woman — so revered that many families used Máire only in religious contexts and called daughters Maureen (Máirín) or Moira instead. Máire Mhac an tSaoi was one of the great Irish-language poets of the 20th century.
• Mairéad · “ma-RAYD” · Girl's name · also Margaret, Maggie, Peig, Máiréad
  The Irish form of Margaret, Greek for 'pearl'. Its short form, Peig, belongs to Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket, whose dictated autobiography became, for better and worse, the book that generations of Irish schoolchildren associated with the language.
• Máirín · “maw-REEN” · Girl's name · also Maureen, Maurene, Molly
  'little Máire' — a diminutive of Máire, the Irish Mary. Anglicised as Maureen and carried out of Ireland by the million — one of the very few Irish names that the wider English-speaking world took up whole and kept.
• Manchán · “MAN-a-khawn” · Boy's name · also Mainchín, Munchin
  From manach, 'a monk'. Several Irish saints, one of them patron of the diocese of Limerick. The shrine of St Manchán of Lemanaghan is one of the great surviving works of Irish medieval metalwork.
• Maolsheachlainn · “mwayl-SHAKH-lin” · Boy's name · also Malachy, Melaghlin, Milo, Malachi
  'devotee of St Seachnall'. Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill was the high king who took Dublin from the Norse in 980 and later yielded the high kingship to Brian Boru without a fight — and took it back after Clontarf. St Malachy, the 12th-century reformer, is the name's other great bearer.
• Mathúin · “MA-hoon” · Boy's name · also Mahon, Mathghamhain, Matthew
  'a bear'. Brian Boru's elder brother, king of Munster before him, was Mathghamhain. Common among the O'Briens and O'Connors, and now almost entirely hidden behind Matthew, which it has nothing to do with.
• Méabh · “MAYV” · Girl's name · also Maeve, Meadhbh, Meave, Meabh, Medb
  'she who intoxicates' — the same root as 'mead'. Medb, queen of Connacht, is the towering female figure of Irish literature: she starts the Cattle Raid of Cooley over a bull, out-argues her husband, leads armies, and takes lovers as she pleases. Tradition buries her standing upright in armour under the great cairn on Knocknarea in Sligo, facing her enemies in Ulster.
• Mealla · “MYAL-a” · Girl's name · also Mella
  An old name; Woulfe records no meaning for it. Borne by several holy women in early Ireland — one of a good many women's names that survive only because a saint carried them.
• Micheál · “MEE-hawl” · Boy's name · also Michael, Mícheál, Mick
  The Irish form of Michael, Hebrew 'who is like God?'. Michael Collins ran the intelligence war that won independence and was shot at Béal na Bláth at 31; Micheál Mac Liammóir co-founded the Gate Theatre and reinvented himself so completely as an Irishman that few knew he was born Alfred Willmore in London.
• Míde · “MEE-de” · Girl's name · also Meeda
  Íde with mo, 'my', put in front of it as a term of endearment. Early Irish was fond of this: take a saint's name, prefix mo, my, and you have the name people actually used. Míde is 'my Íde', the way a household would have said it.
• Móirín · “mo-REEN” · Girl's name · also Moreen
  'little Mór' — a pet form of Mór. The -ín ending is the Irish diminutive, the same one that turns Máire into Máirín and Nóra into Nóinín. It is affection, not size.
• Moncha · “MUN-kha” · Girl's name · also Monica
  Of unknown origin. The Irish Monica, borne by the mother of St Augustine. Woulfe is candid that nobody knows where the name came from.
• Mongfhionn · “MONG-in” · Girl's name · also Mongfind
  'fair hair', from mong, 'hair', and fionn, 'fair'. Wife of the high king Eochaid Mugmedón and mother of three of his sons, and stepmother of the fourth, Niall of the Nine Hostages, whom she is said to have schemed against all his life. She died at Samhain of poison she had meant for her brother, and the feast was called the Festival of Mongfhionn long afterwards.
• Mór · “MORE” · Girl's name · also More, Mary, Martha, Agnes
  'great'. One of the commonest women's names in Ireland for centuries, and one of the plainest — it simply means great. It survived into modern times disguised as Mary, Martha or Agnes, none of which it has anything to do with.
• Muadhnait · “MOO-nit” · Girl's name · also Monat, Mona
  From muadh, 'noble'. An Irish virgin saint whose festival day was 6 January. Anglicised as Mona — which is why a good many Monas are not named after anything Greek at all.
• Muircheartach · “MWIR-kher-takh” · Boy's name · also Murtagh, Murty, Maurice, Mortimer
  Muir + ceartach, 'skilled in seacraft' — 'navigator'. Muirchertach Ua Briain, Brian Boru's great-grandson, was the most powerful king in Ireland around 1100 and gave the Rock of Cashel to the Church — a grand gesture that conveniently denied it to his rivals.
• Muireann · “MWIR-in” · Girl's name · also Muirinn, Morrin
  Muir + fionn, 'sea-white' or 'sea-fair'. A name out of the sea, borne in the Fenian tales by Muireann, mother of Fionn's wife, and by a legendary mermaid (Muirgen, 'sea-born') who was caught in a net in Lough Neagh and baptised. It survives in Connacht and has been steadily rising since the 1990s.
• Muirgheal · “MWIR-yal” · Girl's name · also Muriel, Murel
  Muir, 'sea', and geal, 'bright' — 'sea-bright'. Woulfe reads it as 'sea-bright' or 'the fair one of the sea'. It travelled out of Ireland as Muriel and was thoroughly naturalised in English long before anyone remembered where it came from.
• Muiris · “MWIR-ish” · Boy's name · also Maurice, Morris, Muirgheas
  The Irish form of Maurice; also from muir, 'sea'. Muiris Ó Súilleabháin of the Great Blasket wrote 'Fiche Bliain ag Fás' (Twenty Years A-Growing) at twenty-eight — the sunniest of the three great Blasket books.
• Muirne · “MWIR-nyeh” · Girl's name · also Muirne Muncháem
  Her epithet Muncháem means 'of the beautiful neck'. Mother of Fionn mac Cumhaill. Her father the druid Tadg refused every suitor because he had foreseen that her marriage would cost him his home, so Cumhall took her without leave and it cost him his life.
• Murchadh · “MUR-a-kha” · Boy's name · also Murrough, Morgan
  Muir, 'sea', and cath, 'battle' — 'sea-warrior'. Common in most Irish families and especially among the O'Briens and O'Flahertys. Murchadh, Brian Boru's son, led the Irish line at Clontarf and died there.

Also spelled with M

Listed on the atlas under another spelling, but the M form is the one many families carry — they are the same name.

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