Editing Iona (section)

== Etymology ==
Because the [[Hebrides]] have been successively occupied by speakers of several languages since the [[Iron Age]], many of its islands' names have more than one possible meaning.<ref>Haswell-Smith (2004) p. xiii</ref> Nonetheless, few, if any, have accumulated as many different names over the centuries as the island now known in English as "Iona".

The place-name scholar [[William J. Watson]] has shown that the earliest recorded names of the island meant something like "yew-place".<ref>Watson, ''Celtic Place-Names'', pp. 87-90</ref> The element ''Ivo-'', denoting "[[Taxus baccata|yew]]", occurs in inscriptions in the [[ogham]] alphabet (''Iva-cattos'' [genitive], ''Iva-geni'' [genitive]) and in Gaulish names (''Ivo-rix'', ''Ivo-magus''); it may also be the basis of early Gaelic names like ''Eógan'' (ogham: ''Ivo-genos'').<ref>Watson, ''Celtic Place-Names'', pp. 87-88.</ref><ref group="fn">The name of the Gaulish god ''Ivavos'', which has a similar origin, is associated with the healing-well of [[Évaux-les-Bains|Evaux]] in France.</ref> The island's name may also be related to the name of a mythological figure, ''Fer hÍ mac Eogabail'', the foster-son of [[Manannán]], whose forename meaning "man of the yew".<ref>Watson, ''Celtic Place-Names'', pp. 88-89</ref>

Coates (2006) disputes the "yew" interpretation due to a lack of archeological evidence for yew on the island. Coates instead compares the Punic term ''’y'' ("island, isolated place").<ref name="coates">{{cite book |last1=Coates |first1=Richard |title=A toponomastic contribution to the linguistic prehistory of the British Isles |date=2006 |pages=63–65 |url=https://www.snsbi.org.uk/Nomina_articles/Nomina_35_Coates.pdf |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref>

Mac an Tàilleir (2003) has analyzed the more recent Gaelic names of ''Ì'',<ref group="fn">For etymology of Ì and Latinised derivative ''Iona'', see Watson (2004), pp. 87-90.</ref> ''Ì Chaluim Chille'' and ''Eilean Idhe''. He notes that the name ''Ì'' was "generally lengthened to avoid confusion" to ''Ì Chaluim Chille'', which means "Calum's Iona" or "island of Calum's monastery". ("Calum"'s [[Latinisation of names|latinized]] form is "Columba".)<ref name=Mac>Mac an Tàilleir (2003) p. 67.</ref><ref name=H-Smith>Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 80.</ref> This confusion would have arisen because ''ì'', the original name of the island, would have been confused with the now-obsolete Gaelic noun ''ì'', meaning "island", which was derived from the [[Old Norse]] word for island (''ey'').<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dil.ie/26894 |title=eDIL – Irish Language Dictionary |website=dil.ie |access-date=21 June 2020}}</ref><ref>Dwelly (1911)</ref> ''Eilean Idhe'' means "the isle of Iona", also known as ''Ì nam ban bòidheach'' ("the isle of beautiful women"). The modern English name comes from yet another variant, ''Ioua'',<ref name=Mac/><ref name=H-Smith/> which arose either from [[Adomnán]]'s 7th century attempt to make the Gaelic name fit Latin grammar, or spontaneously, as a derivative of  ''Ivova'' ("yew place").<ref>Watson, ''Celtic Place-Names'', p. 88</ref> The change in the island's name from ''Ioua''' to ''Iona'', which is attested from c. 1274,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Broderick |first=George |year=2013 |title=Some island names in the former "Kingdom of the Isles": a reappraisal |journal=Journal of Scottish Name Studies |volume=7 |pages=1–28: 13, fn.30|url=http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V7/JSNS7%20Broderick.pdf |access-date=23 February 2016 |archive-date=8 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408212824/http://www.clanntuirc.co.uk/JSNS/V7/JSNS7%20Broderick.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> resulted from a transcription error due to the similarity of "n" and "u" in [[Insular Minuscule]] script.<ref>Fraser (2009) p. 71.</ref>

Despite the continuity of forms in Gaelic from the pre-Norse to the post-Norse era, Haswell-Smith (2004) speculates that the island's name may be connected with the [[Old Norse|Norse]] word ''Hiōe'', meaning "island of the den of the brown bear".<ref name=H-Smith/> The medieval English-language version of the name was "Icolmkill" (and variants thereof).<ref name=H-Smith/>

{|class="wikitable"
|+Table of earliest forms (incomplete)
|- align=left
!  Form
!  Source
!  Language
!  Notes
|-  style="vertical-align:top; background:#ffffec;"
|Ioua insula
|[[Adomnán]]'s ''[[Vita Columbae#Vita Columbae|Vita Columbae]]'' (c. 700)
|Latin
|Adomnán calls [[Eigg]] ''Egea insula'' and Skye ''Scia insula''
|-  style="vertical-align:top; background:#ffffec;"
|Hii, Hy
|[[Bede]]'s ''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum]]''
|Latin
|
|-  style="vertical-align:top; background:#ffffec;"
|Eoa, Iae, Ie,<br>I Cholaim Chille
|''[[Annals of Ulster]]''
|Irish, Latin
|U563 ''Nauigatio Coluim Chille ad Insolam Iae''<br>"The journey of St Columba to Í"<br>U641 ''Naufragium scaphe familie Iae.''<br>"Shipwreck of a vessel of the community of Í."<br>U716 ''Pascha comotatur in Eoa ciuitate''<br>"The date of Easter is changed in the monastery of Í")<ref>[http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100001A/text286.html original] ([http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100001A/text285.html translation])</ref><br>U717 ''Expulsio familie Ie''<br>"The expulsion of the community of Í"<br>U778 ''Niall...a nn-I Cholaim Chille''<br>"Niall... in Í Cholaim Chille"
|-  style="vertical-align:top; background:#ffffec;"
|Hi, Eu
|''[[Lebor na hUidre]]''
|Irish
|''Hi con ilur a mmartra''<br>"Hi with the multitude of its relics"<br> ''in tan conucaib a chill hi tosuċ .i. Eu''<br>"the time he raised his church first i.e. Eu"
|-  style="vertical-align:top; background:#ffffec;"
|Eo
|[[Walafrid Strabo]] (c. 831)
|Latin
|''Insula Pictorum quaedam monstratur in oris fluctivago suspensa salo, cognominis Eo''<br>"On the coasts of the Picts is pointed out an isle poised in the rolling sea, whose name is ''Eo''"<ref>Watson, ''Celtic Place-Names'', p. 88, n. 2</ref>
|-  style="vertical-align:top; background:#ffffec;"
|Euea insula
|''[[Life of St Cathróe of Metz]]''
|Latin
|
|}

=== Folk etymology ===
Murray (1966) claims that the "ancient" Gaelic name was ''Innis nan Druinich'' ("the isle of [[Druid]]ic hermits"), but there is no evidence for the "ancient" use of such a name before the nineteenth century when it appears in the ''New Statistical Account'' and it may arise from a misunderstanding of the name ''Cladh nan Druineach'', which means 'burial ground of the embroideresses or artificers' – a cemetery on the east shore of the island.  He also repeats a Gaelic story (which he admits is apocryphal) that as Columba's coracle first drew close to the island one of his companions cried out ''"Chì mi i''" meaning "I see her" and that Columba's response was "Henceforth we shall call her Ì".<ref name=Murray>Murray (1966) p. 81.</ref>