Origin: Welsh
Meaning: most likely, “great queen”
Gender: Feminine
Eng. (ree-AN-nun); Wel. (rhee-AHN-none)
The name most likely derives from the Celtic Rigantona meaning “great queen.” It appears in the Welsh Mabinogion as the wife of Pwyll and the mother of Pryderi. Rhiannon is noted for being a strong character and many scholars believe she may be a reference to an earlier Celtic goddess, but this has not been proven; she has been linked with the Gaulish goddess, Epona, as she and Pryderi are always associated with horses.
In the 1970s, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks was inspired by the fantasy novel Triad: A Novel of Supernatural Suspense (1972) by Mary Bartlett Leader, (which is very losely based on Rhiannon from the Mabinogion), and wrote the hit song Rhiannon (1975).
Rhiannon first cracked into the U.S. Top 1000 the same year Rhiannon was playing across the radio waves as a hit single (1976). Rhiannon peaked in popularity the following year in 1977 coming in as the 418th most popular female name. Rhiannon finally fell off the charts in 2007.
In England/Wales, Rhiannon actually made it to the Top 100 between 1996 and 2000, peaking at #83 in 1998.
Its Breton variant is Riwanon, and through this we get the unusual French Medieval form of Rivanone, or Rivanon. This was the name of the mother of the Breton saint, St. Harvey (circ. 6th-century CE).
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