girl's name
Doireann
DUR-in
- Origin Irish
- Gender Girl
- Letters 8
- Popularity Top 1000 (Ireland)
- Births on record 1,384
Ireland
#190
2025 births
Doireann is a girl's name from Irish legend whose meaning is genuinely disputed — sullen and daughter of Finn are both proposed, and neither is settled. It ranks 190th in Ireland and charts in only one other market.
- Doireann is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in Ireland in 2010, when 58 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade in Ireland.
- Today about 1 in 1,950 babies in Ireland is given this name.
- First appears in birth records in 1975.
Doireann over time
Births per decade in Ireland, 1970s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1970s | 25 |
| 1980s | 158 |
| 1990s | 163 |
| 2000s | 287 |
| 2010s | 518 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 207 |
What Doireann means
Doireann has no agreed meaning. The two standard proposals are sullen or tempestuous, and daughter of Finn, and they derive the name from different words.
Where Doireann comes from
Doireann appears in the Fenian cycle as a daughter of Bodb Dearg, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who offers Fionn mac Cumhaill a drink that turns him old and gray when he refuses to marry her. Two derivations compete and neither has won. The first splits the name as der or dair, daughter, joined to Finn, giving daughter of Finn, which fits the legendary material but not the story's own relationships. The second reads it as dorn, a fist, or as related to a word for sullenness, giving the tempestuous reading that most name references carry. The disagreement is old and unresolved in the scholarship, so a page that gives you one meaning flatly is overstating what is known.
Doireann in use
Doireann ranks 190th in Ireland on 23 births and 415th in Northern Ireland on 3, and appears in no other market. It peaked in Ireland in 2010, when 58 babies were registered, and is stable in our data. Our records carry it from 1975 across 1,384 lifetime births. Like most names taken directly from the Fenian cycle, it has stayed on the island rather than spreading with Irish emigration.
How popular is Doireann?
In 2025, Doireann was given to 23 babies in Ireland, ranking #190 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Doireann is used
Irish figures withhold any name given to fewer than three babies in a year, so a gap means the name fell below that floor rather than went unused. The Central Statistics Office began recording the síneadh fada in 2018, so accented and unaccented spellings are counted separately from that year on. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Doireann
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Doireann also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Doireann over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Doireann
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Doireann in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Doireann
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Doireann — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Doireann
What does the name Doireann mean?
It is disputed. Sullen or tempestuous and daughter of Finn are both proposed, from different roots, and neither is settled.
How do you pronounce Doireann?
DUR-in, with the stress on the first syllable.
Is Doireann a mythological name?
Yes. She appears in the Fenian cycle as a daughter of Bodb Dearg who curses Fionn mac Cumhaill for refusing her.
How popular is Doireann?
190th in Ireland, and it charts nowhere outside Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Is Doireann a girl's or a boy's name?
Doireann is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
What are the nicknames for Doireann?
Doireann is usually shortened to Doire.
Is Doireann a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Doireann currently ranks #190 in Ireland. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.