MEANING: Comes from the word faol “”wolf.”” The earliest record of the name seems to be for a follower of the warrior Fionn Mac Cool (read the legend) who was so loyal that he would have rescued Fionn from captivity, even from God himself.

MEANING: feidhil “”beauty”” or “”ever good.”” Three kings of Munster bore the name. Feidhelm Mac Crimthainn was both a king of Munster and a Bishop of Cashel. He contested the sovereignty of Ireland with the O’Neill kings. He was unsuccessful in the ensuing battle and in 842 AD the annals record… “”The crosier of devout Feidhelm was abandoned in the blackthorns. Neill, mighty in combat, took it by right of victory.””

MEANING: feidhil “”beauty”” or “”ever good.”” Three kings of Munster bore the name. Feidhelm Mac Crimthainn was both a king of Munster and a Bishop of Cashel. He contested the sovereignty of Ireland with the O’Neill kings. He was unsuccessful in the ensuing battle and in 842 AD the annals record… “”The crosier of devout Feidhelm was abandoned in the blackthorns. Neill, mighty in combat, took it by right of victory.””

MEANING: Comes from fear + Dia “”man of God.”” Ferdia battled with his friend and foster-brother Cuchulainn (read the legend) in the battle over the Brown Bull of Cooley (read the legend). They fought for four days, each night sending each other food and sweet herbs as medicines for the wounds they had inflicted on each other during the day. They fought so bitterly that the river itself fled its bed in terror to give them room for their warfare. And each morning they resumed fighting until, on the fourth day, Cuchulainn flew into a rage and let loose his magical spear, the dreaded Gae Bolga, which destroyed his friend Ferdia.

MEANING: It seems to come from fearghal “”brave, courageous, valorous.”” Fergal Mac Maolduin was an eighth-century High King renowned for his efforts in battle.

MEANING: Meaning “”fair-haired,”” the name has been popular since the sixth century when St. Finbar came to an area of Cork that was being tormented by a serpent. The people begged him to do something to help them. One night he went to where the serpent was sleeping and sprinkled it with holy water. The angry serpent tore and devoured the land until she slithered into the sea at Cork Harbor. The track she left behind filled with water and became the River Lee and that’s why St. Finbar is the patron saint of Cork. It is said that the sun didn’t set for two weeks after Finbar’s death.

MEANING: “”fair-haired”” or could mean “”white fire.”” There have been seventy four saints with this name, including St. Fintan of Clonenagh in County Laois (c. 600 AD) who lived the life of a hermit on a diet of bread and water. Before he established his monastery Fintan sought the advice of his mentor St. Colmcille. When Colmcille looked out from the mountain, Slieve Bloom, over the wood-covered foothills to the south-east, he saw the angels of God coming and going over Clonenagh and he told Fintan that this was to be the place of his monastery. In mythology, Fintan is said to have been the only Irishman to have survived the Biblical flood.

MEANING: The Irish form of Francis, a name originating from the figure of St. Francis of Assisi. The name means “”little French man”” and was popularised in Ireland by the Franciscans whose founder was St. Francis of Assisi. The Celts would have been responsive to the stories of St. Francis’s attitude to birds and animals.