Irish names meaning the sea

Each name, and where the meaning comes from

• Muircheartach · “MWIR-kher-takh” · Boy's name
  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
  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
  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
  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
  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
  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.

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