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Historical reference account (1884)
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01 / Meaning & origin
Màbel is a feminine given name.
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03 / By the numbers
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04 / Through time
Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.
Mabel— “beloved”
Martha, Maud, and Mabel, are employed to distinguish Meadhbh, Meave, or Mab, one of the very oldest and most famous of Irish names. It would be most satisfactory to take it from _meadhail_, joy; but this is far from certain, and it may come from an old comparative of _mor_, great. But Mirth is analogous with the meaning of Ainè, the other fairy queen; and _mear_, or merry, has furnished another Irish name, namely, the masculine Meaghar or Meara. Meadhbh was the daughter of…
Martha, Maud, and Mabel, are employed to distinguish Meadhbh, Meave, or Mab, one of the very oldest and most famous of Irish names. It would be most satisfactory to take it from _meadhail_, joy; but this is far from certain, and it may come from an old comparative of _mor_, great. But Mirth is analogous with the meaning of Ainè, the other fairy queen; and _mear_, or merry, has furnished another Irish name, namely, the masculine Meaghar or Meara. Meadhbh was the daughter of Eochaid Freidhleach, king of Erin, as it is said, A.M. 3922, and was so brilliant a heroine of Irish romance, that Congal Claen bids the men of Connaught, her husband’s kingdom, to “Remember Meave in the battle.” Afterwards, like other favourite Irish heroines, she became queen of the fairies; and some of the Irish settlers must have carried tidings of her to England, when Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson made Queen Mab our own peculiar possession, if knowing how to make the best use of her establishes a claim. Meave, or Mab, has not entirely lost ground among the Irish peasantry, though generally it has an equivalent.
Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part V, Chapter III (Gaelic Names), Section XI (Names of Majesty) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)
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06 / Behind the facts
Review status: Source-reported — no editorial review recorded yet. Last data change 2026-10-15.
Wiktionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata: CC0. Commons recordings retain their individual file licences. Complete attribution is available in each group above and alongside each chart.
