Niall is a male

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

of Irish origin. The original meaning of the name is unknown, but popular modern sources have suggested that it means "champion" (derived from the

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

word ''niadh'').The Neill Surname
/ref> According to John Ryan, Professor of Early and Medieval History at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, Niall "seems to be so ancient that its meaning was lost before records began."

Notable people with the name Niall

Medieval times

Niall of the Nine Hostages Niall Noígíallach (; Old Irish "having nine hostages"), or Niall of the Nine Hostages, was a legendary, semi-historical Irish king who was the ancestor of the Uí Néill dynasties that dominated Ireland from the 6th to the 10th centuries. ...

, High King of Ireland who lived in the early-to-mid 5th century AD *

Niall Caille Niall mac Áeda (died 846), called Niall Caille (Niall of the Callan) to distinguish him from his grandson Niall mac Áeda (died 917), was High King of Ireland. Background Niall belonged to Cenél nEógain, a northern branch of the Uí Néill, ...

, High King of Ireland in the 9th century AD

Modern times

* Niall Carolan (born 2002), Irish Gaelic footballer *

Niall Ferguson Sir Niall Campbell Ferguson, ( ; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson

(born 1964), Historian and the Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University *

Niall Horan Niall James Horan ( ; born 13 September 1993) is an Irish singer-songwriter. He rose to prominence as a member of the boy band One Direction, formed in 2010 on the singing competition ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor''. The gr ...

(born 1993), a member of the British-Irish boy band One Direction *

Niall Mackenzie Niall Macfarlane Mackenzie (born 19 July 1961) is a Scottish former professional motorcycle road racer. Career Mackenzie, who hails from Fankerton, near Denny, Stirlingshire; won the British Superbike Championship three times from 1996 to ...

(born 1961), Scottish former professional motorcycle road racer * Niall Matter (born 1980), Canadian actor *

Niall McCready Niall McCready is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Aodh Ruadh and the Donegal county team. He won an Ulster Under-21 Football Championship medal with Donegal in 1995. He started the first game of Brian McEniff's last spell a ...

, Irish Gaelic footballer *

Niall McGinn Niall McGinn (born 20 July 1987) is a Northern Irish professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward. McGinn has also played for Dungannon Swifts F.C., Dungannon Swifts, Derry City F.C., Derr ...

(born 1987), Northern Irish footballer *

Niall Moran Niall Moran (born 1 March 1983) is an Irish hurler who played as a centre-forward for the Limerick senior team. Born in Castleconnell, County Limerick, Moran first played competitive hurling whilst at Ardscoil Rís. He arrived on the inter ...

(born 1983), Irish hurler * Niall O'Brien (born 1981), Irish cricketer * Niall O'Donnell (born 1998), Irish Gaelic footballer *

Niall Quinn Niall John Quinn (honorary Order of the British Empire, MBE; born 6 October 1966) is an Irish former professional Association football, footballer, manager, businessman and sports television pundit. As a player, he was a Striker (association f ...

(born 1966), Irish former international footballer and chairman of the English club Sunderland A.F.C.

As a surname

Brenda Niall Brenda Mary Niall (born 25 November 1930) is an Australian biographer, literary critic and journalist. She is noted for her work on Australia's well-known Boyd family of artists and writers. Educated at Genazzano FCJ College, in Kew, Victoria, ...

(born 1930), Australian writer, aunt of Jake and Richard *

Jake Niall Jake Niall is a sports journalist at '' Fox Sports Australia'' and ''ABC Radio Grandstand'' based in Melbourne, Australia. He specialises in covering the Australian Football League, and currently appears on '' AFL Tonight'' on Fox Sports News ...

, Australian sports journalist, cousin of Richard *

Richard Niall Richard Michael Niall is an Australian jurist who has served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria since 3 February 2025. He previously served as a judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria from 28 November ...

, Australian judge

Fictional characters

* Niall, a Circle Mage from '' Dragon Age: Origins'' * Hunter Niall from ''Sweep'' *

Niall Brigant Niall Brigant is a fictional character from ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'' by author Charlaine Harris. He first appears in '' From Dead to Worse''. He is Sookie and Jason Stackhouse's great-grandfather and Claude and Claudine's grandfather. He ...

from ''

The Southern Vampire Mysteries ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', also known as ''The True Blood Novels'' and ''The Sookie Stackhouse Novels'', is a series of books written by The New York Times Best Seller list, bestselling author Charlaine Harris. The first installment, '' ...

'' * Niall MacDonnell from the

Honorverse The Honorverse is a military science fiction book series, its two subseries, two prequel series, and anthologies created by David Weber and published by Baen Books. They are centered on the space navy career of the principal protagonist Ho ...

Niall Rafferty Niall Rafferty (born Matthew McQueen) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks'', played by Barry Sloane. He first appeared during an episode broadcast on 3 December 2007. Former '' Brookside'' actor Sloane was ...

from ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which originally began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. From 2005 to 2023, episodes h ...

'' * Niall from ''

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 ''Xenoblade Chronicles 2'' is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the third installment in the '' Xenoblade Chronicles'' series and the sixth main entry in the ''X ...

'' * Pedron Niall from ''

The Wheel of Time ''The Wheel of Time'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author Robert Jordan, with American author Brandon Sanderson as co-writer of the final three installments. Originally planned as a trilogy, ''The Wheel of Time'' came to ...

'' * Commander Niall from ''

Elden Ring is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki with worldbuilding provided by the American fantasy writer George R. R. Martin. It was released o ...

References