Comments for the name Fiachra

A name that seems to be admired by many in and outside of Ireland. I even admire it myself. A very strong and powerful name in my opinion.

Sounds like Viagra to me. :S

I much prefer the French version, Fiacre, but this is an okay name.

Fiachra does NOT sound like Viagra. It's FEE-akh-ra, just like it says on this site. The "ia" is a diphthong, which means the first part has the long I sound; "ee". The "ch" is pronounced as in loch (one of the few Irish words that has made it to English). This is sometimes a hard sound for English speakers to make (but trust me, you haven't heard the slender r), and some people hate it, because of its throatiness. I pretty sure the "r" is a broad r, which means it's a trilled r, like in Spanish or Italian, which I'm assuming you know how to pronounce. Unless of course it's a slender r, but I'm not that sure how to tell. Perhaps someone will verify it.

I read somewhere that this name meant "eagle"; wouldn't "raven" be a variant of the stem "bran"?

No, the meaning is definitely "raven". "Fiach dubh" means "raven" in Irish. Eagle is "iolar", which bears no resemblance to Fiachra. I don't know where you got "bran" from. In Irish, bran means the same as it does in English - the kind of cereal.

I believe that Bran is Welsh! There was a giant named Bran in folklore who protected England. When he died, he asked for his head to be buried facing Europe to repel any invaders. King Arthur, haughty as ever, dug Bran's head up and disposed of it, assuming that he could protect England forever all by himself. Well the Saxons invaded, then the Normans invaded, and eventually the Normans built the Tower of London above the place where Bran's head used to stay. Legend has it that this is why ravens must stay in the Tower of London or harm will befall Britain.
Anyway, I think this is a very nice name.

This is an absolute outrage, fiach dubh is clearly the meaning of raven... not Fiachra!

My name is Fiachra and I have never known my name to mean anything other than Hunter! I have spoken with many fluent gaelic speakers and they have always refereed to my name as meaning hunter.

Anyone with half a brain can see that fiach dubh and Fiachra are completely different words with completely different meanings. Fiach means to hunt or hunting, dubh means black i.e. black hunt which is referring to the fact that the raven is black and hunts for things

Fiachra is someone who hunts i.e. hunter!