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In Irish mythology, Danu or Dana was the mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann (peoples of the goddess Danu). However, little is recorded about her as an individual. Some scholars believe Danu and Anu (also Ana) are the same deity, while others state that the two are separate individuals. Danu's Welsh equivalent is Dôn.^[1]

Based on the evidence of place-names, such as the river Danube (Latin: Danuvius), Dniestr, Dniepr and Don, Danu may have been worshiped throughout the Celtic world. Indeed, the presence of a goddess named Danu in Hindu mythology, associated with water and mother of a race of Asuras called the Danavas, may indicate a very ancient Proto-Indo-European origin for this figure.

The name *dhanu seems to have originally meant "swift".^{[citation needed]} The original stem of Danann (which is in the genitive case) didn't survive intact in any of the Celtic languages. The reconstructed lexis of the Proto-Celtic language, as collated by the University of Wales, suggests that the name is likely to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Celtic *Danoā.^[2] This Proto-Celtic word connotes the semantics of ‘Giving,’ ‘Bountiful’ and ‘Flow.’ This apparent semantic connotation has led Dr. John Koch at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies to propose that the original nature of this deity may well have been a personification of ‘overflowing abundance’. If this theory is correct, it would account for the deity’s associations with a motherly ideal, the fertility of the earth and with rivers whose overflowing water surpluses may have been seen as a materialization of her presence. Equally, this would imply that she is not identical to Anann, but bears greater resemblance to the Irish river goddess Boann, or to the Roman Ops, the Greek Rhea and the Anatolian Cybele, all of whom are great mother goddesses symbolising abundance.

• Associations between the Welsh Dôn and the Irish Dana