Irish names meaning strong

Each name, and where the meaning comes from

• Aonghus · “AY-ngus (also EN-gus)” · Boy's name
  'one choice' or 'one strength' — aon + gus. Aengus Óg, god of love and youth, lived at Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange), which he won from his father the Dagda by asking to stay 'a day and a night' — meaning all days and all nights. Yeats put him in 'The Song of Wandering Aengus'.
• Bearnárd · “BAR-nard” · Boy's name
  From Frankish Bernhard, 'strong bear' or 'brave warrior'. St Bernard of Clairvaux made it universal in Europe. The Anglo-Normans brought it to Ireland, and later, Woulfe says, it was used as an English stand-in for the native Brian.
• Cathal · “KA-hal” · Boy's name
  Cath + val, 'strong in battle'. Cathal Crobhderg, 'Cathal of the Wine-Red Hand', was the last effective king of Connacht before the Norman tide, and died a monk in 1224. Cathal Brugha (Brugha) was the first Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil and died in the Civil War.
• 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.
• Donnchadh · “DUN-a-khoo” · Boy's name
  Donn + cath, 'brown-haired warrior' or 'strong warrior'. Borne by a son of Brian Boru and by kings of Munster and Leinster; the Scottish form is Duncan. Donnchadh Rua Mac Conmara was an 18th-century Waterford poet whose mock-epic on emigration is still read.
• Fearghas · “FAR-gus” · Boy's name
  Fear + gus, 'man of vigour' or 'manly strength'. Fergus mac Róich, deposed king of Ulster, goes over to Medb's side in the Táin and fights his own people — and it is he who, in one telling, dictates the whole epic back to the scribes from beyond the grave. Fergus Mór is claimed as the founder of Dál Riata in Scotland.
• Maitilde · “ma-TIL-da” · Girl's name
  From German Mahthild, 'might-heroine'. Brought to England by the wife of William the Conqueror, and to Ireland by the Anglo-Normans. Woulfe says neither Matilda nor its Norman twin Maud ever became common here.
• Réamonn · “RAY-mun” · Boy's name
  Germanic, 'mighty protection' or 'counsel protection'. Introduced by the Anglo-Normans and formerly not uncommon in many Irish families, says Woulfe. He gives both Raymond and Redmond as its English forms.
• Treasa · “TRASS-a” · Girl's name
  Used as the Irish form of Teresa; sometimes read as 'strength'. Adopted widely in the 19th and 20th centuries as the Irish for Teresa, after the Spanish saint — one of many names that entered Irish through devotion rather than descent.
• Tuathal · “TOO-hal” · Boy's name
  'people-mighty'. Once rather common, now very rare. Tuathal Techtmar is the legendary high king said to have imposed the Boruma tribute on Leinster — the cattle-debt that caused six hundred years of war in the annals.

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