Rhea

Rhea came into English through Latin from the Ancient Greek Rhéa. Nobody is sure what it first meant. Scholars have linked it with a Greek word for the earth and with the verb for flowing, and some think the name is older than Greek altogether.

In Greek myth Rhea is a Titan, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia and the mother of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter and Hestia. Her husband Cronus swallowed their children one by one, so when Zeus was born she tricked him with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Roman legend has a separate figure, Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus. One of the moons of Saturn is named after the Titan.

Rhea is a newcomer in Ireland. It first reached three babies in a year in 1990 and stayed rare for a long time before a sharp rise in the 2020s. Its best year so far was 2025, with 64 girls. That year it was number 81 counting the French spelling Rhéa, and 85th for Rhea alone on the CSO list. It was 35th in Northern Ireland the same year, its highest place there.