Oilill, Ailell, Aleel
[Irish, sprite, elf; cf. Welsh ellyll]
An extremely popular name in early Ireland, borne by countless figures including at least two saints, ten warriors of the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle, and a host of petty kings in genealogies. Perhaps the most widely known figure of this name is Ailill mac Máta, the husband of Medb in the Táin Bó Cuailnge [Cattle Raid of Cooley]. Eoin Mac-Neill once suggested that some Ailills, despite different epithets, may be identical or may have borrowed aspects of each other's histories. The name was once arbitrarily latinized as Elias and anglicized as Oliver.
