Irish names meaning king, queen or noble

Each name, and where the meaning comes from

• Ailbhe · “AL-va” · Used for girls and boys
  Possibly from albho, 'white', or from ail, 'rock' — 'noble, bright'. Used for women and men alike. St Ailbhe of Emly was a bishop in Munster before Patrick's mission was finished — one of the 'pre-Patrician' saints, said to have been suckled by a she-wolf as an abandoned infant, and remembered as the patron of Munster.
• 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.
• Brian · “BREE-an” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'noble' or 'high'; disputed. Brian Bóruma, Brian Boru, rose from an obscure Munster dynasty to claim the high kingship of all Ireland and died victorious at Clontarf in 1014, praying in his tent. His name became so bound up with greatness that the O'Briens took it as their surname.
• Cathaoir · “KA-heer” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'warrior' or 'battle-lord'. Cathaoir Mór is the legendary ancestor of the Leinster dynasties. Cathaoir Ó Doirnín and Cahir O'Doherty carried it into history — the latter's doomed 1608 revolt burned Derry and gave the crown its excuse for the Plantation of Ulster.
• Conn · “KON” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'chief' or 'hound'. Conn Cétchathach, 'Conn of the Hundred Battles', is the legendary ancestor of the Connachta, and of half the dynasties of the north and west. Conn Bacach O'Neill was the first to accept an English earldom in 1542, beginning the slow end of Gaelic Ulster.
• Domhnall · “DOH-nal” · Boy's name
  'world-ruler' — domhan + val. A name of high kings, and the origin of the Scottish Donald and the surname MacDonald. Domhnall Ua Néill and Domhnall Mór Ua Briain both held provincial kingship; Domhnall Ua Buachalla was the Free State's last Governor-General, who insisted on the Irish form of his name on state papers.
• Eachann · “AKH-an” · Boy's name
  From the older Eachdhonn — 'horse-lord'. Still in use among the Scots, where it goes down as Hector — a Trojan prince standing in for an Irish horse-lord.
• 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.
• Gormlaith · “GORM-la” · Girl's name
  Gorm + flaith, 'illustrious princess' (gorm here 'splendid' rather than 'blue'). Gormlaith, daughter of the king of Leinster, married in turn the Norse king of Dublin, the high king Máel Sechnaill, and Brian Boru — and, the sagas say, urged her son Sitric to war at Clontarf. Few names sit so exactly at the centre of a battle.
• Iarlaith · “EER-la” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'tributary lord'. St Jarlath founded the school of Tuam in County Galway, where, legend says, he was told to drive his chariot until a wheel broke, and to build his church there. It broke at Tuam, which became the ecclesiastical capital of Connacht.
• Muadhnait · “MOO-nit” · Girl's name
  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.
• Neasa · “NASS-a” · Girl's name
  Uncertain; borne in legend by the mother of a king. Ness was the formidable mother of Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster — and unusually in early literature, he is named for her rather than his father. In one telling she extracted a year's kingship for her infant son by sheer negotiation.
• Órlaith · “OR-la” · Girl's name
  Ór + flaith, 'golden princess' or 'golden lady'. A genuinely royal name: Órlaith was a niece of Brian Boru, and the annals record several princesses of the name in the 10th and 11th centuries. It vanished for most of a millennium and returned in the 20th century, usually spelled Orla.
• Pádraig · “PAW-drig” · Boy's name
  From Latin patricius, 'nobleman'. Patrick was a Roman Briton, kidnapped at sixteen and enslaved as a shepherd in Ireland, who escaped, took orders and came back to the country that had held him. His own Confessio survives — one of the very few personal voices from 5th-century Europe.
• Rian · “REE-an” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'little king' — from rí; disputed. Better known as a surname (Ó Riain, Ryan) than a given name until the late 20th century, when Ryan became a global favourite and Irish parents reclaimed it in its native spelling.
• Ríona · “REE-na” · Girl's name
  From ríoghan, 'queen'. The full form, Ríoghnach, was the name of a 6th-century saint and, in legend, the wife of Niall of the Nine Hostages. It doubles neatly as an Irish equivalent of Regina, which means the same thing in Latin.
• Ríordán · “REER-dawn” · Boy's name
  'royal poet' — from ríogh + bardán. Better known as a surname (Ó Ríordáin), and borne by Seán Ó Ríordáin, widely held to be the greatest Irish-language poet of the 20th century — fitting for a name that literally means royal bard.
• Ruairí · “ROO-a-ree” · Boy's name
  'red king' — rua + rí. Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair was the last High King of Ireland: he submitted to Henry II in 1175 and died a monk at Cong in 1198. Rory O'More's name became a password of the 1641 rising, and Rory O'Connor held the Four Courts in 1922.
• Tiarnán · “TEER-nawn” · Boy's name
  From tiarna, 'lord' — 'little lord'. Tighearnán Ua Ruairc (Tiernan O'Rourke, king of Bréifne) was the man whose wife Dervorgilla was carried off by Diarmait Mac Murchada in 1152, setting in motion the feud that brought the Normans to Ireland.
• Tuilelaith · “ta-LOO-la” · Girl's name
  'abundance of sovereignty' or 'lady of abundance'. Two abbesses of Kildare bore this name in the 9th and 10th centuries. Its resemblance to the American Tallulah, which comes from a Choctaw place-name, is pure coincidence, but a happy one.

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