MEANING: Often refers to a person who is a native Irish speaker or a person who is from Ireland. Medieval legend holds that Gael was the name of the hero from whom the Irish race took its name.

MEANING: Anglicized as Barbara. May come from gorm “illustrious” or “splendid” and flaith “queen, princess.” Lady Gormlaith, a legendary beauty, was queen of the Danes in Ireland as wife of Olaf, The Viking leader of Dublin; later she was wife of Malachy II, king of Ulster and finally married Brian Boru (read the legend), king of Munster and later king of all Ireland. Her three sons, Sitric, Murdach and Donough continued to rule Ireland after The Battle of Clontarf where Brian Boru died in 1014.

MEANING: From gran “grain, corn.” Grainne in ancient Ireland was the patron of the harvest. In later legends Grainne was the name of the beautiful daughter of a High King of Ireland, Cormac Mac Art. She had been promised in marriage to the king Fionn Mac Cool (read the legend). When Grainne saw him at the wedding banquet she realised Fionn was too old for her and put a “geis,” a love spell on Fionn’s nephew, Diarmuid. They ran away together but Fionn’s pursuit prevented them from spending two consecutive nights in the same place. Megalithic sites throughout Ireland are still traditionally referred to as “the bed of Grainne and Diarmuid” (read the legend).

MEANING: Described as “one of the most remarkable women in Irish history” Granuaile or Grainne Ni Mhaille (ang. as Grace O’Malley) was a renowned sea captain who led a band of 200 sea-raiders from the coast of Galway in the sixteenth century. Twice widowed, twice imprisoned, fighting her enemies both Irish and English for her rights, condemned for piracy, and finally pardoned in London by Queen Elizabeth herself, her fame was celebrated in verse and song and in James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake.” She is often seen as a poetic symbol for Ireland.