Finn: a name from Irish legend, ready for a story of his own

Where the name Finn comes from

Finn is most often traced to the Irish Gaelic name Fionn, meaning "fair", "white" or "bright". It was originally a description, the kind of name you might give a fair-haired child, and over time it became one of the best-known names in Irish storytelling.

The most famous bearer is Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised as Finn McCool. In one tale he is a boy apprentice cooking the Salmon of Knowledge for a poet. He burns his thumb on the fish, sucks it to cool it and gains all the wisdom of the world, which is why he is said to chew his thumb whenever he needs to work something out. In another, Finn builds the Giant's Causeway so he can cross the sea to Scotland, then escapes a much bigger giant by disguising himself as a baby in a cradle. Brains over size is a very good theme for a picture book hero.

There is a second, separate root. In Old Norse, Finnr was a common personal name, and Finn appears in the Old English poem Beowulf as a Frisian king. That is part of why Finn feels at home across Ireland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany alike. Readers may also know it as the surname of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, a boy who sets off down the Mississippi on a raft.

Today Finn is used as a standalone name, not just a short form, and it has been a familiar choice for New Zealand families for years. It fits the Kiwi taste for short, outdoorsy, no-fuss names that work just as well on a rugby team sheet as on a birthday cake.

The legend travelled to Scotland too. In the 1760s James Macpherson published poems he claimed to have translated from the ancient bard Ossian, and their hero, Fingal, is a Scottish retelling of Fionn. Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa takes its name from him, and the poems were so widely read that Napoleon is said to have carried a copy. So a boy called Finn shares his name with a giant-builder, a thumb-sucking sage, a Scottish king of song and a Mississippi rafter. Not a bad crew to bring along on a first adventure.

Nicknames and other forms of Finn

• Finn — The everyday form and, for most boys, the full name on the birth certificate. Short enough that it rarely gets shortened further.
• Finny — The affectionate version for toddlers, siblings and grandparents, often used at bedtime or when he is in trouble but not really in trouble.
• Finnster / Finn-man — Playful family and team nicknames, the sort a coach or an older cousin comes up with.
• Fionn — The original Irish spelling, pronounced much like Finn (roughly "Fyun" in some Irish accents). Some families choose it to keep the link to the legend visible.
• Finley, Finlay, Finnegan, Finnian — Longer names that are commonly shortened to Finn. If your son is officially a Finley or Finnegan but everyone calls him Finn, the book can use whichever he answers to.
• Fynn / Fin — Alternative spellings you may see, Fynn especially in German-speaking families. Spell it exactly as he does and that is how it appears in the story.