White Snow And Icy Names

An Edwardian coinage from the Welsh word for gold, plus the suffix -wen.

Fannar is one of the top names for boys in Iceland but is rarely seen anywhere else in the world.

More unusual than Fiona and more user-friendly than Fionnuala, the engaging Scottish Fenella, has been scarcely heard in this country.

Finella and cousin Fenella, which are found most often in Scotland, would make pleasing imports.

Finn is a name with enormous energy and charm, that of the greatest hero of Irish mythology, Finn MacCool (aka Fionn mac Cuumhaill), an intrepid warrior with mystical supernatural powers, noted as well for his wisdom and generosity.

The most enduringly popular hero of Irish myth was Finn McCool, whose name is one of the coolest ever. When used for the female protagonist of How to Make an American Quilt, Finn established its hipness for girls as well.

The Old Norse Finnr or Finnur may resemble the Irish Finn or Fionn but is a name referring to a Finn or Laplander, the original meaning of which is wanderer.

Finnur and Finnr are not variation of the Irish Finn or Fionn but Old Norse names referring to Finns or Laplanders, which originally means wanderer.

Finola, the readily accessible version of some of the more problematic Gaelic versions of the name, would make a welcome addition to the stockpot of Irish girls' names.

Fintan is an ancient Irish saints' name that in legend is also the name of the only person to survive The Flood. Popular in modern Ireland, Fintan is ripe for export to the US where it is rarely used but could make an excellent long form for the stylish Finn.

This phonetic spelling of the Gaelic Fionnuala (which also has many spelling variations) is sometimes rendered as Finola or Finella.

Fiona entered the American consciousness with the opening of the 1954 Broadway musical Brigadoon, but didn't come onto the U.S. popularity list until 1990.

Fionn, the modern Irish form of Finn, is more popular in Ireland these days than Finn, which is rising fast in the U.S. where Fionn is virtually unknown. That's probably a good thing, because few Americans would know that Fionn and Finn have the same root and are pronounced the same, like the fin of a fish. It's the namesake of a great hero from Irish mythology, Fionn MacCumhaill, who acquired divine wisdom by eating an enchanted salmon of knowledge.

Fionn is the Irish form of the name modernized as Finn, but popular in this form in Ireland, where it's in the boys' Top 20. A couple dozen baby boys in the US were named Fionn last year and no baby girls, though there were girls named Finn, Fionna, and Fionnuala, so Fionn may be thought of as a variation or short form of those names.

This lovely Gaelic name, very popular in the Emerald Isle, has inspired a whole host of diminutives (including Nuala and Nola) and variant spellings, from Finola to Finula to the Scottish and English Fenella. In Irish legend Fionnuala was one of the four children of Lir who were transformed into swans for 900 years.