 eithne is a female personal name of irish origin. in irish, th is pronounced like an english h, so the correct irish pronunciation is /'ÉhnÊ²É/ - hence the musician eithne nÃ­ bhraonÃ¡in anglicising her name as enya. however, the name is also used by non-irish speakers, and is sometimes pronounced /'ÉÎ¸nÉ/. the name is popular in ireland, and (especially in earlier variants like ethniu, ethliu, ethlinn and a variety of other spellings - see below) is borne by a variety of historical and legendary figures, including: ==medieval== * ethniu, daughter of balor and mother of lug in irish mythology * eithne, daughter of the king of alba, wife of the high king fiacha finnfolaidh and mother of tuathal teachtmhar * eithne, the mother of saint columba * eithne and sodelb, leinster saints ==modern== * enya brennan (eithne nÃ­ bhraonÃ¡in), musician * eithne nÃ­ uallachÃ¡in, singer and musician * eithne farry, former literary editor of elle * eithne fitzgerald, irish economist and former labour party politician. * lÃ eithne (p31), a ship in the irish naval service * eithne hannigan, irish musician and actress who played one of five dots on children's tv show playbus (later playdays) * eithne walls, a physician and former dancer, who danced with the popular riverdance group on broadway, died on the air france flight 447 crash on june 1, 2009. other spellings and earlier forms include: ethnea, ethlend, ethnen, ethlenn, ethnenn, eithene, ethne, aithne, enya, ena, edna, etney, eithnenn, eithlenn, eithna, ethni, edlend, edlenn. eithne is considered by some sources to be the feminine cognate of the name aidan.macleod, iseabail and freedman, terry: the wordsworth dictionary of first names, wordsworth editions, 1995, isbn 1-85326-366-4, p.74. ==see also== *list of irish-language given names ==references==  
Irish-language_given_names Irish_feminine_given_names