... Aidan visited Wales and Scotland, became a monk of Iona, and then went forth as a missionary to the North of England.  He was the friend of the admirable Oswald, free of hand, king of Deira, who used to interpret his Keltic speech to the Angle population; and his gentle teaching won to the Church multitudes whom the harshness of former missionaries had repelled.  He is reckoned as first bishop of Lindisfarn, and has left his name to sundry churches of St. Aidan.  Aoidhne, or Eithne, was the Irish feminine once distinguished, but now disused.
    Aidan is still a female name among some Welsh families. (History of Christian Names, Yonge, 1884)