Language Notes

Element Meaning

G fionn ‘white’ + G port ‘port’

Sources

(Bay of) Finfort 1654 Blaeu (Pont) Mula
(Bay of) Finfort 1654 Blaeu (Pont) Iura 

Fionphort 1868 × 1878 OSNB ARG OS1/2/77/58/2 [“A small district on the Sound of Iona at the southwest end of Catchean. The post ferry for Iona starts from a bay here. It includes three or four dwellings – one of which is the ferryman’s, which is also a receiving house for letters – and a farmsteading. Property of His Grace the Duke of Argyll.] 

Fionphort 1875 × 1881 OS 6 inch 1^st edn
Fionnphort 1955 Clàr-eagair Mòd Ionadach na Dreòlluinn 1955, p. 8

Fionnphort: Tobar an Dualchais 84012

Additional Information

There is svarabhakti between ‘nn’ and ‘ph’ in local pronunciation of the name within a Gaelic-speaking and an English-speaking context.  Fundamentally, Fionnphort can be translated as ‘white port’ given the primary senses of fionn and port.  However, Fionnphort has long been used as a port for vessels travelling from Mull to Iona and it is worth considering the possibility that fionn originally carried the sense ‘blessed, holy’ in the place-name.  Fionn carries this sense in some early Gaelic religious poetry.

Local pronunciation of Fionnphort within a Gaelic-speaking context can be heard in various recordings digitised by Tobar an Dualchais, e.g. Dòmhnall ‘Dan’ MacPhàrlain, Track ID 17791.