Enya's Real Name: Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin

Quick answer: Enya's documented original name is Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin. AllMusic lists that form as also known as and dates her birth to May 17, 1961, in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland. Encyclopedia.com records the shorter Eithne Ni Bhraonain (without accents or the middle name) and the same date and place (AllMusic; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Enya, a phonetic form of Eithne. Encyclopedia.com says the Gaelic birth name is pronounced "Enya Brennan," that her first language was Gaelic, and that she was born into a musical family in Gweedore, one of nine children; it names her father as Lee O. Bhraonain, a dance-band leader, and her mother, Maira, as a music teacher. AllMusic's narrative uses the shorter Eithne Ní Bhraonáin and names her father as Leo Brennan, leader of the Slieve Foy Band, a difference in the father's given name that is noted here rather than silently resolved. Both sources say she joined her siblings' group Clannad as a keyboardist in 1980 and left in 1982 to work with producer Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan.

Career highlights

Encyclopedia.com records early solo soundtrack work, including a score for the film The Frog Prince (1985) and music for the BBC series The Celts (1987). AllMusic says that BBC television work led to Watermark (1988), whose layered, overdubbed vocal style became her signature; the album, AllMusic says, sold eight million copies worldwide. Encyclopedia.com independently dates Watermark to 1988 and says the following year brought U.S. success, especially with the single "Orinoco Flow." Later albums in that entry include Shepherd Moons (1991), The Memory of Trees (1995), Paint the Sky with Stars (1997), and A Day Without Rain (2000), whose single "Only Time" became a later hit. Encyclopedia.com records Grammy Awards for best New Age album, including one in 1992 for Shepherd Moons, and says that even without a conventional concert tour she had sold more than 44 million albums. That distinctive combination of Celtic and studio-layered sound defined the career that followed.

Name notes for searchers

Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin is the full original form given as also known as by AllMusic; Encyclopedia.com uses Eithne Ni Bhraonain. The professional name is Enya. Searchers looking for Watermark or "Orinoco Flow" are usually aiming at the same person.