Eala: Meaning, Pronunciation and Origin
Eala is an Irish girl's name meaning “swan.” Here’s how to say it, where it comes from, and names that go well with it.
Updated September 2026
- Irish spelling
- Éala
- Meaning
- Swan
- Gender
- Girl
- Popularity in Ireland
- No. 10 for girls (2025)
How do you pronounce Eala?
Eala is pronounced AY-la. It has two syllables, with the stress on the first.
What does Eala mean?
Éala is inspired by eala, the Irish word for “swan.” The dictionary word has no fada; the accent on the É was added for the name, which is one of the newest in Irish use and first appeared in the national baby-name statistics in 2018. Some families write it without the accent, as Eala.
Swans have a special place in Irish legend. In the Children of Lir, the four children of Lir are turned into swans by their jealous stepmother, Aoife, and spend 900 years on the lakes and seas of Ireland before the spell is broken.
Sources: Behind the Name, Wikipedia, irishcentral.com, Ó Dónaill's Irish dictionary (teanglann.ie), en.wiktionary.org.
How popular is Eala in Ireland?
In 2025, 209 baby girls in Ireland were named Éala, which made it No. 10 that year. Another 6 were registered as Eala or Èala. That's up from No. 896 ten years earlier. It first appears in the records in 2010, with 3 baby girls.
See the numbers by year
| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 215 | No. 10 (Éala) |
| 2024 | 114 | No. 40 (Éala) |
| 2023 | 100 | No. 53 (Éala) |
| 2022 | 59 | No. 91 (Éala) |
| 2021 | 27 | No. 177 (Éala) |
| 2020 | 23 | No. 197 (Éala) |
| 2019 | 28 | No. 180 (Éala) |
| 2018 | 10 | No. 411 (Éala) |
| 2017 | 12 | No. 341 (Eala) |
| 2016 | 7 | No. 515 (Eala) |
| 2015 | 3 | No. 896 (Eala) |
| 2014 | 3 | No. 876 (Eala) |
| 2013 | 4 | No. 747 (Eala) |
| 2011 | 3 | No. 937 (Eala) |
| 2010 | 3 | No. 910 (Eala) |
Eala in Ogham
Ogham is the oldest way of writing Irish. It was carved along the edges of standing stones, mostly between the 4th and 6th centuries, and read from the bottom up. In later tradition each letter was named after a tree or plant. Here’s Eala, letter by letter.
- EEadhadh, aspen
- AAilm, pine
- LLuis, rowan
- AAilm, pine
Write any name in Ogham with our Ogham translator
Names that go with Eala
Questions about Eala
- How do you pronounce Eala?
- Eala is pronounced AY-la. Two syllables, stress on the first.
- What does Eala mean?
- Eala means “swan.”
- Is Eala a girl's name or a boy's name?
- Eala is a girl's name.
- How do you spell Eala in Irish?
- In Irish it's spelled Éala. That's the spelling most parents in Ireland now register, according to the Central Statistics Office.
- How popular is Eala in Ireland?
- In 2025, Éala was No. 10 for girls in Ireland, with 209 babies, according to the Central Statistics Office. That's the highest it has ever ranked.