Until recently, solutions to the meaning of the names of the various major Hebridean islands have been looked for within a Celtic framework, and this has in number of cases led into a cul-de-sac, resulting often in a frustrating admission that the names might be ‘pre-Celtic’. In recent years, in the context of Phoenician mercantile activity around Britain and Ireland during the early first millennium BC, a possible Proto-Semitic solution in a number of cases has been sought. Given this situation, the present article seeks to loosen the log-jam to some extent in offering a few suggestions. But for many names it is likely that we may never get to know their provenance or meaning at all.