Fintan is an Irish given name. In Irish mythology, Fintan mac Bóchra is said to be the sole survivor of the Great Flood on the island of Ireland, subsequently becoming a personification of old age and knowledge. As a shapeshifter, he appears to be identical to the Salmon of Wisdom and the name may thus have deeper roots in Celtic mythology. The mythical figure is probably the source for the use of the name in medieval and modern times. As an acronym, Fintan also stands for the Flexible Integrated Transformation and Annotation Engineering platform, a tool for the language resource transformation that aims to facilitate knowledge extraction and knowledge integration tasks in language technology and its applications. The name alludes to both the aspects of transformation (shapeshifting) and knowledge (wisdom) associated with Fintan mac Bóchra. Notable persons and characters with this name include: mythological Fintan mac Bóchra, figure in Irish mythology Ireland and Scotland, medieval Fintan of Clonenagh, 6th- and 7th-century Irish saint Saint Fintan Munnu, 7th-century Irish saint, a disciple of Saint Columba Findanus, 9th- and 10th-century chief on the Isle of Skye, Scotland Fintan of Rheinau (Findan, Findanus), 9th c. catholic saint and hermit, born in Leinster, active in Rheinau, Switzerland Ireland, modern James Fintan Lalor, (1807–1849) an Irish revolutionary Fintan O'Toole (born 1958), Irish columnist, writer, literary editor and drama critic Fintan Kilbride (1927–2006), Irish priest Fintan McAllister, Irish cricketer Fintan Connolly, Irish film-maker Fintan Coogan Snr (1910–1985), Irish Fine Gael politician Fintan Coogan Jnr, Irish Fine Gael politician Fintan Cullen, Irish writer and academic Fintan Walsh, Irish Gaelic football player Fintan Warfield, Irish Sinn Féin politician Great Britain, modern Fintan Ryan, British scriptwriter Switzerland Fintan of Rheinau (Findan, Findanus), 9th c. catholic saint and hermit, born in Leinster, active in Rheinau, Switzerland Fintan Birchler, 18th c. priest in Rheinau, Switzerland, author of a vita of Fintan of Rheinau Fintan Mundwiler, 19th-century Swiss Benedictine Fictional characters Fintan Pyren, an unstable villainous murderer in the book series Keeper of The Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger References Acronyms Irish-language masculine given names