MAEVE

Irish:Anglicizedform ofGaelicMeadhbh, an ancientCelticname meaning ‘intoxicating, she who makes drunk’. It is borne by the Queen of Connacht in theIrishepicTáin Bó Cuailgne, ‘the Cattle Raid of Cooley’. In this, Meadhbh leads a raid on Ulster in order to seize the Brown Bull of Cooley, but she is repulsed single-handed by the hero Cuchulain. The historical events underlying the epic probably took place in about the Ist century AD. Shakespeare's Queen Mab, ‘the fairy’s midwife' (Romeo and JulietI. iv. 53), may owe her name, if nothing else, to the legendary Queen of Connacht.

Variants:Mave (also an informal short form ofMAVIS(SEE Mavis)), Meave.