Meaning unclear. There are various places of the name throughout the country (anglicised as Limnagh, Luimnagh, Lumnagh and Limerick). P.W. Joyce suggested that "Luimneach ... signifies a bare or barren spot of land" (The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places II), and some later authorities have since followed this explanation; see, however, A Dictionary of the Irish Language (www.dil.ie) s.n. luimnech: 'cloaked, mantled', 'shielded' (lumman). The dinnseanchas (The Metrical Dindsenchas III 274) attempted to explain the name in several ways, associating it in particular with the words luimnigthe ('cloaked') and luimnechda ('shielded'). The name is said elsewhere (m.sh. Onomasticon Goedelicum 508 agus Mac Spealáin, Aos Trí Muighe 20) to have originally referred to the Shannon estuary.