MORRIGAN.  Arthurian.  An ancient Celtic name meaning "great queen," from mor, great, and rígan, queen.

    According to the Cóir Anmann the Morrigan dwells in one of the sidh; Hennessy gives us to understand that she had a fairy palace beside the Suir.  In the Tochmarc Emire we read of the Morrigan's Garden and the "Wood of the Badb, i.e., of the Morrigan"; in the Fled Bricrend there is a mere mention of the Morrigan's ford, and certain Irish localities according to Hennessy are designated as the Morrigan's Field, the Mound of the Morrigan, the Fulacht of the Morrigan. 
    We cannot have followed in Morgain's path thus far without finding ourselves on familiar ground as we read of these attributes and associations of the Morrigan.  Morgain's name is not wholly unrepresented in the topography of Armorica; she has, it goes without saying, a fairy dwelling; she can foretell the future, she can cast a magic mist where she will.  Like the Morrigan, also, Morgain is a fomenter of strife... 
    ... It is possible to explain the form Morgán (or Morgáin) as derived directly from Morrigan.  The name of the war-goddess is written Mórrigan, Mór Rígan, Mórríghan, Mor(r)ig(h)ain, Morrign, Morrígu (see Hennessy, Rev. Celt., I, 53, for the declension; Stokes, Rev. Celt., XII, 128, 308).  The original accent of the word is uncertain; but the etymology generally accepted by scholars (see below, p. 159), which explains the name as a compound consisting of mor, great, and rígan, queen, makes it probable that the word had an accented penult... (Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance, Paton, 1903).