Irish warrior names

Each name, and where the meaning comes from

• Ardghal · “ARD-gal” · Boy's name
  Árd, 'high', and gal, 'valour'. A favourite among the MacKennas and MacMahons of Ulster, who anglicised it, unaccountably, as Arnold. Still in use as Ardal.
• Art · “ART” · Boy's name
  'bear' — and by extension 'champion, hero'. A genuinely ancient name, unrelated to English 'art'. Art mac Cuinn was a legendary high king; Art Mór Mac Murchadha Caomhánach humbled two royal expeditions of Richard II in the 1390s; and Art Ó Laoghaire's murder in 1773 produced the greatest lament in the Irish language.
• Breasal · “BRASS-al” · Boy's name
  From an old Celtic word for strife or war. An Irish saint whose feast day was 18 May, and a name common among the O'Kellys and O'Maddens of Connacht. The mythical Atlantic island Hy-Brasil is not named for it, whatever the maps suggest.
• 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.
• 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.
• Ceallach · “KYAL-akh” · Boy's name
  'war' or 'strife'. Once very common, and borne by at least three saints — one of them the Archbishop of Armagh known as St Celsus, who died at Ardpatrick in Munster on 1 April 1129. The surname Kelly is built on the same word.
• Cillian · “KIL-ee-an” · Boy's name
  Possibly from cill, 'church', or ceall, 'little warrior'; disputed. St Cillian of Würzburg left Ireland in the 7th century to preach in Franconia and was murdered there for telling a duke his marriage was unlawful; he is patron of the Bavarian city still. The actor Cillian Murphy has spent a career correcting the pronunciation.
• Conán · “KON-awn” · Boy's name
  An old name of uncertain meaning, often linked to cú, 'hound'. The name of at least six Irish saints, among them St Conan of Assaroe in Donegal, a kinsman of Colmcille venerated on 8 March. Conán Maol is also the loud-mouthed, bald-headed comic of the Fianna.
• 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.
• Cuán · “KOO-awn” · Boy's name
  From cú, 'hound' — 'little hound'; also 'harbour' in modern Irish. A name of early saints that has been quietly revived, helped by the fact that cuan also means harbour in everyday Irish — so it reads as both 'little wolfhound' and 'haven'.
• 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.
• Fearghal · “FAR-gal” · Boy's name
  Fear + gal, 'man of valour'. Fergal mac Máele Dúin was a high king killed in a catastrophic defeat in 722. The name lives on in the surname Ó Fearghail, O'Farrell, the princes of Annaly whose fortress gave County Longford its name.
• 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.
• Lorcán · “LOR-kawn” · Boy's name
  From lorc, 'fierce' — 'little fierce one'. Lorcán Ua Tuathail, St Laurence O'Toole, was archbishop of Dublin during the Norman invasion, and spent his last years trying to protect his people from both sides. He died at Eu in Normandy in 1180, still negotiating, and is the city's patron saint.
• 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.
• Niall · “NEE-al (Ulster NYAL)” · Boy's name
  Possibly 'champion' or 'cloud'; disputed. Niall Noígíallach, Niall of the Nine Hostages, is the 5th-century king from whom the Uí Néill dynasties, and thus the O'Neills and O'Donnells, claimed descent. Genetic studies have found a Y-chromosome signature carried by a remarkable share of men in the north-west, consistent with one very prolific early medieval lineage.

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