Pretty and soulful name of a goddess from Irish mythology and several Irish saints. Singer Enya, born Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, has made the Anglicized spelling familiar. Eithne comes from the vocabulary word "kernel", which was used as a term of praise in old bardic poetry.

Ethne is one of the many Irish Gaelic names whose spelling and pronunciation -- it's en-ya -- will prove endlessly confusing to English speakers.