Fionnuala
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Irish Gaelic name, pronounced ‘fyunnoo-a-la’: the modern form of Fionnguala, a traditional name derived from fionn ‘white’, ‘fair’ + guala ‘shoulder’
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/fʲənnuɑɫə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Fionnuala is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Ireland than in any other country.
- IEIreland≈1 in 8.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 127K
- USUnited States1 in 1.3M
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Ireland (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 131 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 8.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈630 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Irish Gaelic name, pronounced ‘fyunnoo-a-la’: the modern form of Fionnguala, a traditional name derived from fionn ‘white’, ‘fair’ + guala ‘shoulder’. In Ireland it is Anglicized as Finuala or Fi(o)nola, and in Scotland as Fenella or Finella. Short form: Nuala.
Sources 1
- A concise dictionary of first names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Fionnuala counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IE Ireland | #348 | ≈630 est. | ≈1 in 8.2K | — | Fionnuala | 92 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈520 est. | ≈1 in 127K | 3 | Fionnuala | 131 |
| US United States | — | 260 | 1 in 1.3M | 260 | Fionnuala | 128 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 213K | 1 | Fionnuala | 54 |
| ES Spain | — | ≈33 est. | ≈1 in 1.5M | — | Fionnuala | 14 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | ≈5 est. | ≈1 in 1M | — | Fionnuala | 14 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Fionnuala is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Irish Gaelic: modern form of Fionnguala , a traditional name composed of the elements fionn white, fair + guala shoulder. Cognate: Scottish Gaelic: Fionn(a)gh(u)al(a) (Anglicized as FLORA ). Short form: Nuala .
as a word
In Irish, alternative form of Fionnghuala
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Fionnuala Boydb. 1944GBBritish artist (born 1944)
- Nuala Willisb. 1950not in their usual nameopera singer
- Fionnuala Kennyb. 1956IEIrish public relations specialist (born 1956)
- Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyleb. 1960GBBritish lobbyist, charity trustee and public official
- Fionnuala Sherryb. 1962IEIrish musician
- Fionnuala Sweeneyb. 1965GBNorthern Irish television journalist
- Fionnuala Ní Aoláinb. 1967IEIrish legal academic
- Fionnuala McCormackb. 1984IEIrish long distance and steeplechase runner
- Fionnuala MurphyGBBritish actress
- Fionnuala Ní FhlathartaIEactress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 18 sources across 9 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 260 | #32,402 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2001 | 15 | #126 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 1998 | 15 | #136 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 1997 | 15 | #139 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2010 | 12 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2003 | 11 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2021 | 10 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2016 | 10 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 1999 | 10 | #167 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2019 | 9 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2014 | 9 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2009 | 9 | #201 |
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you pronounce Fionnuala?
- A machine transcription gives /fʲənnuɑɫə/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Fionnuala mean, and where does it come from?
- Irish Gaelic name, pronounced ‘fyunnoo-a-la’: the modern form of Fionnguala, a traditional name derived from fionn ‘white’, ‘fair’ + guala ‘shoulder’. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.
- What are other forms of the name Fionnuala?
- In the etymology graph, Fenella, Finola and Finella are forms of the same name in other languages; Nola and Nuala are recorded short or pet forms.
- Is Fionnuala a male or female name?
- Fionnuala is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Fionnuala have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 634 people named Fionnuala in Ireland, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled fionnuala.
- How common is the name Fionnuala?
- In the United States, the national register counted 260 people named Fionnuala in 2020, about 1 in 1.3 million residents.
- How common is Fionnuala compared with other names?
- In Ireland, Fionnuala is the 348th most common given name of 14,976 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Fionnuala?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/fionnualaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Fionnuala” — the 348th most common given name in Ireland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.