FLANN

Flann is a name of Irish origin that has appeared in various historical and literary contexts. It is primarily masculine and has also been used as a surname in some cases. Variants and related spellings include Flannan and Flannán, with anglicized forms such as Flan.

The etymology of Flann is not entirely certain. It is commonly linked to Gaelic roots associated with color or brightness, with interpretations that connect the element to terms meaning red or blood, though exact meanings can vary by source and period.

Saint Flannan of Killaloe, also known as Flannan or Flannanus, was a 6th–7th century Irish bishop who is venerated as a saint. The Flannan Isles, a small group of rocks off the coast of Scotland, are named after him, and they are associated with a historic lighthouse and a famous 1900 lighthouse tragedy.

In modern usage, Flann appears in literature and personal names. One well-known bearer is Flann O'Brien, the pen name of Irish writer Brian Ó Nualláin (1911–1966), whose works include satirical and experimental novels. The name persists in Irish communities and genealogical contexts, though it remains relatively uncommon outside of specific cultural or familial lineages.

In technology, FLANN stands for Fast Library for Approximate Nearest Neighbors. It is an open-source C++ library designed to perform fast approximate nearest neighbor searches in high-dimensional data and is widely used in computer vision and machine learning applications.