Comments for EITHNE:

Eithne Ní Bhraonáin of Gaoth Dobhair, Dún Ghall, Éireann, bears this name. Or she is known by the Anglicized version of it: Enya. Enya is perhaps the queen of Celtic new age music.

-- gaelruadh19  5/2/2005

I know it pronounced as EEN-a, my gran's name.

-- rainbow_Maya  1/9/2006

Eithne, Ethna and Ethnne and other spelling variants are generally pronounced ETH-na in Ireland.

However a confusion has arisen among non-Irish speakers and people who live outside Ireland about the pronunciation of this name. This is because a lot of people first encounter it through the singer Enya. En-ya is a regional, minority pronunciation of Eithne. The singer is a native speaker (Irish as first language speaker) from Donegal. The most notable effect of this dialect is a slurring of consonants. Thus Máire becomes Moya, Eithne becomes Enya, etc. However not all Eithnes from Donegal pronounce it Enya. The only Eithne I've met under 50 is "Eth-na" and is from County Donegal. [noted -ed]

-- Speranza  10/30/2006

ETH-na is the English pronunciation. The Irish language does not have the "th" sound. (Indeed, a good many Irish have trouble pronouncing the sound in English, as is well known.)

-- Kosta  5/23/2007

In the Irish language, th is pronounced like English h, though it is usually dropped at the end of a word. In this case, it may or may not be dropped, depending on dialect.

-- Kosta  5/24/2007

In some stories this is given as the name of the mother of St. Columcille.

-- Katheros  9/28/2007

I heard that singer Enya pronounces Eithne AY-nya.

-- enchy  7/13/2009

Key: Meaning/History Usage Pronunciation Famous Bearer Personal Impression Other

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