How Ona got her name

So Melanie and I had a rough time deciding on names. It was about 2 days before Ona was born that we finally settled on her name. Etymology, the study of the origin of words is a tricky thing. When did the name first appear? Which culture had it first? What does it mean? Names are especially tricky, which is why so many of them have multiple meanings and origins.

We (and by we I mean I) really wanted to give our newest daughter a Gaelic (Irish) name. After much deliberation we came up with Oonagh, which is the Gaelic spelling of Ona. We decided that a lifetime of correcting people on the proper pronunciation of her name would just be cruel, so we went with the anglicized version. In Celtic folklore Ona is the “queen of the fairies”. It means “unity” or “the one” in Latin. It may have originally derived from the Gaelic “uan”, which means lamb. All are fun meanings to a name which we picked simply because we liked how it sounds.

There is a wonderful Celtic folktale about Oonagh. Actually it is about Finn McCool, but Ona turns out to be the wise one in this tale. Given that this is a folktale, there are of course various versions with subtle differences. Here then is the version I know and the one we will tell to Ona as she grows…

Once upon a time… (yup, it’s a fairy tale, they all start out like that) there lived a Celtic hero by the name of Fionn mac Cumhaill (later anglicized to Finn McCool). Finn was a giant and he lived peacefully with his fairy wife Ona in a small cottage by the sea. It was widely known throughout Ireland and the surrounding lands that Finn was the strongest and toughest man around.

Until one day a traveler from Scotland wandered past Finn while he was working in the fields. The traveler spoke to Finn without fear and without wonder. This struck Finn, since most who had come before were dumbfounded by his huge size and many trembled just to be in his presence. So Finn asked the man “Why do you not fear me? Am I not the largest man you have ever seen?” To which the traveler replied that he was indeed a great man, but certainly not big enough to elicit fear. “Now back in Scotland there lives a man twice your size by the name Angus the grand.” Finn was shocked. A man twice his size. Surely the man must be crazed. “I have not heard of this Angus you speak of”, Finn said, “Even if what you say is true, he surely cannot be as strong as I.” To which the traveler replied, “Do you challenge Angus to battle then?”

Finn pondered this question for awhile. He had no quarrel with this large Scot, but then his pride got the better of him and he wanted it known that he was the greatest and strongest man in the land and so he told the traveler to bring a message back to Scotland, to this Angus the grand, that he Finn McCool challenged him to a battle of strength.

And so away the traveler went. Weeks went by and Finn started to wonder if this Angus existed at all when word finally came that Angus was simply to large to fit in any boats and was working on a massive bridge across the sea. When Finn received this word he too began building a giant’s causeway. As both giants built toward each other word came to Finn from a fisherman returning to port that he had seen a giant so great that he had mistaken him for a mountain. On hearing this Finn began to wonder if his boldness and pride might have gotten the better of him. A second fisherman returned claiming to have seen the water rise when the giant stepped into the water. When a third fisherman claimed to have seen a great figure step in front of the sun and cast a shadow as though it were night, then Finn knew that he had boasted to quickly.

When Finn returned home that evening he spoke to Ona of all he had heard from the weary Irish fisherman who had seen the Scottish giant. Ona thought for a moment and then quickly ran to the bedroom and returned with the couple’s bed sheets. Finn suspected that Ona had gone mad. When she began tearing them up, he was sure. Ona assured him that she had a plan. She counseled him to return to his work on the causeway in the following days. Each night he returned home tired and growing more weary by the day. He spoke of this to Ona. She finally let him in on her plan.

The next day a messenger came to Finn’s home and announced that on the following day Angus would come and they would meet in battle. The next day when Angus arrived Finn was nowhere to be found. He pounded on the cottage door. Ona opened the door and invited her guest inside. She explained that Finn had gone to gather her more firewood and offered the giant a massive cup of tea. As they spoke a baby cried from the bedroom. Ona tried to excuse herself to attend to the baby. She was surprised when Angus asked to come and look upon this child of Finn’s. Upon hearing this she smiled and led him to the bedroom where Angus saw the most enormous baby he had ever seen. This great baby was wearing a massive diaper and appeared to be nearly half his size! What a great giant Finn McCool must be to have such a huge child. Thinking he was no match for anyone so large Angus quickly excused himself and fled back to Scotland and destroyed his side of the causeway so that he might be safe.

It was hard to say whether it was fairy magic or simply the giant diaper she had made out of the bed sheets for Finn, but her husband was now safe thanks to the quick wit of Ona. From that day on Finn McCool was much quieter when speaking to strange travelers and he was never known to brag or boast. To this day if you travel to Northern Ireland you can see the progress Finn McCool had made on his side of the Giant’s Causeway.


Yes, I did give Paul naming privileges, although I was not without veto power. I was quite pleased with many Irish names for boys – Liam, Finn, Orin, Kiernan, but when it came to Gaelic girl names many of them sounded so harsh to me. Paul would throw out a name and I would wrinkle my nose and counter with a name of my own. It turns out we were both keeping our number one choices to ourselves. I was afraid to mention mine in fear of Paul hating it, and I also figured if I threw out my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc choices first, maybe I would wear him down by the time I got to my number one choice. But given my husband’s stubborn Irish genes, I knew convincing him otherwise was nearly impossible. My due date was looming when I finally suggested the name Lily. In truth I had been thinking of this name for months. I imagined Emma and Lily together. I imagined holding Lily’s little hand in mine. I imagined Lily running around the house with her curly hair.

I loved the sound of the name Lily and I also found personal meaning in the name. Growing up my mom planted Lily of the Valley flowers in our backyard. I used to love to stare at the delicate little bell-shaped flowers. They looked just like little fairy hats, hanging in a row. In keeping with the fairy theme, I love Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies and it turns out there is a beautiful Lily of the Valley fairy. Also, we live in a valley so our daughter truly would be Lily of the Valley.

Yeah, I was pretty convinced Lily would be her name and I suggested to Paul that we use a Gaelic name for her middle name. Although Paul didn’t hate the name Lily, he did not want to give up having an Irish first name. Finally, he told me that his number one choice was Ona. When we put the two names together, it just felt right, and now I couldn’t be happier with her name. Welcome to the world, Ona Lily Brown.

(The non-Ona pictures are not our own, but were stolen from the internet).