Irish names from nature

Each name, and where the meaning comes from

• Achall · “AKH-al” · Girl's name
  The name of a hill by Tara, for the woman said to have died on it. Daughter of the king of Tara. When her brother Erc was killed by Conall Cernach she went up a hill near Tara and died there of grief, and the hill was called after her.
• Bláthnaid · “BLAW-nid” · Girl's name
  From bláth, 'flower' — 'little flower' or 'flower-like'. In the Ulster Cycle, Blathnát betrays her husband Cú Roí to Cú Chulainn — and is thrown from a cliff by the dead man's poet in revenge. The name's real career, though, is as an Irish equivalent of Flora and Florence.
• Bran · “BRAN” · Boy's name
  'raven'. Bran was one of Fionn's two great hounds (a transformed nephew, in some tellings) and 'The Voyage of Bran' is one of the earliest Irish accounts of a journey to the Otherworld across the sea.
• Breandán · “BREN-dawn” · Boy's name
  Probably from a Welsh word for 'prince'; not from bran, 'raven'. St Brendan the Navigator sailed west from Kerry in a hide boat looking for the Isle of the Blessed, and the medieval bestseller 'Navigatio Sancti Brendani' described what he found. Tim Severin's 1976 voyage proved a leather curragh really can reach Newfoundland.
• Clodagh · “KLOH-da” · Girl's name
  From the River Clodiagh in Waterford. One of the few Irish names that began as a river and became a person rather than the other way round. Lady Clodagh Anson, daughter of the 5th Marquess of Waterford, was named after the Clodiagh, which runs through the family estate at Curraghmore, and the name spread from her.
• Conall · “KON-al” · Boy's name
  'strong as a wolf' or 'strong wolf'. Conall Cernach was a Red Branch champion who avenged Cú Chulainn's death. Conall Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, founded the kingdom of Tír Chonaill (Donegal, 'Conall's land') and the O'Donnells descend from him.
• Conchobhar · “KON-a-khoor (commonly KRUH-hoor)” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'lover of hounds' or 'wolf-lover'. Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster in the Táin, presides over the Red Branch warriors from Emain Macha — and over the tragedy of Deirdre, which his own possessiveness causes. Ten centuries later the O'Connor kings of Connacht took his name into history; two of them were the last High Kings of Ireland.
• Cormac · “KOR-mak” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'son of the charioteer' or 'raven's son'; disputed. Cormac mac Airt is the legendary wise high king of Tara, to whom a book of maxims is attributed. Cormac mac Cuilennáin, king-bishop of Cashel, died in battle in 908 and left behind Ireland's first known glossary — a dictionary of hard words a thousand years before dictionaries were normal.
• Damhnait · “DAV-nit” · Girl's name
  From damh, 'stag' or 'ox' — 'little fawn' or 'little doe'. St Dympna, a 7th-century Irish princess who fled her father and was killed at Geel in Belgium, became the patron saint of those suffering mental illness — and Geel built a tradition of caring for psychiatric patients in ordinary family homes that is studied to this day.
• Darragh · “DA-ra” · Used for girls and boys
  From dair, 'oak' — 'oak tree' or 'fruitful, fertile'. Dáire is an ancient name borne by mythical kings — including Dáire mac Fiachna, who owned the brown bull that started the Táin. The modern Darragh reads simply as 'oak', which is why it suits a country whose place-names are full of doire, oak-woods.
• Enda · “EN-da” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'bird-like'. St Énda founded the monastery on Inis Mór in the Aran Islands around 484 — the earliest Irish monastic foundation of which we have record, and the school where Ciarán of Clonmacnoise and Brendan the Navigator are said to have trained.
• Faoiltiarna · “FWEEL-teer-na” · Girl's name
  Faol, 'wolf', and tiarna, 'lady' — the wolf-lady. An Irish virgin saint whose feast day was 17 March — the same day as Patrick, which is not a good day to share if you want to be remembered.
• Faolán · “FWAY-lawn” · Boy's name
  From faol, 'wolf' — 'little wolf'. St Fáelán preached in Scotland, where Strathfillan and St Fillan's Pool are named for him — the pool was used to treat the mentally ill into the 19th century. The surname Whelan comes from the same root.
• Feichín · “FEH-heen” · Boy's name
  From fiach, 'a raven'. Five Irish saints, of whom one was abbot of Fore in Westmeath and patron of west Connacht. His day is 20 January, and the seven wonders of Fore are still counted off for visitors.
• Fiachna · “FEE-akh-na” · Boy's name
  Possibly from fiach, 'raven'. Fiachna mac Báetáin was a 7th-century king of the Ulaid whose reign is remembered in both Irish and Scottish sources — one of the last kings of the old Ulster before the Uí Néill ascendancy.
• Fiachra · “FEE-akh-ra” · Boy's name
  Possibly from fiach, 'raven', or 'battle-king'. St Fiacre, a 7th-century Irish monk who settled in France, became the patron saint of gardeners — and, because a Paris hotel bearing his name hired out carriages, the French word for a cab became 'fiacre'. Also one of the Children of Lir.
• Fiadh · “FEE-a” · Girl's name
  'wild, of the wild' — also 'deer', and in older usage 'respect'. The great surprise of recent Irish naming: almost unknown before 2010, Fiadh climbed to the very top of the girls' charts in the Republic within a decade. Its meaning (wildness, wild nature) clearly suits the mood of the moment.
• Oisín · “uh-SHEEN (also OSH-een)” · Boy's name
  From os, 'deer' — 'little deer, fawn'. Son of Fionn and of Sadhbh — the woman who had been a deer, which is why he is 'little fawn'. He followed Niamh to Tír na nÓg, returned three centuries later, and lived just long enough to tell St Patrick the tales of the Fianna.
• Oscar · “OSS-kar” · Boy's name
  Os + cara, 'deer-lover' or 'friend of deer'. Oscar was Oisín's son and the fiercest of the Fianna, killed at the battle of Gabhra. Macpherson's 'Ossian' carried the name to the Continent, where Napoleon's admiration for the poems led to a king of Sweden being christened Oscar — and Oscar Wilde being named after him.
• Sionann · “SHUN-an” · Girl's name
  The goddess the River Shannon is named for. Granddaughter of Manannán mac Lir. She went to the well of knowledge for the forbidden fruit the druids had planted, and the water rose and took her and kept rising: it became the Shannon, the longest river in Ireland or Britain, and it carries her name still.
• Tlachtga · “TLAKHT-ga” · Girl's name
  The name of a druidess, and of the Hill of Ward in Meath. Red-haired daughter of the arch-druid Mug Ruith, who travelled the world with her father and learned his secrets. The Hill of Ward in Meath carries her name and was one of the great fire sites of Samhain.

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