Gonne

Gonne is a surname of Irish origin, most notably associated with Maud Gonne (1866–1953), an Irish actress and nationalist. She became a prominent public figure during the Irish cultural revival and the Irish nationalist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gonne is widely remembered as a muse of the poet W. B. Yeats, who is said to have proposed to her; she declined. Her public life and ideals contributed to the Irish independence movement and to the broader cultural revival that shaped Irish literature and politics during her lifetime. The surname Gonne remains relatively uncommon, with Maud Gonne being its most widely recognized bearer; outside her, the name does not denote a commonly recognized term, and it is most often encountered in Ireland or in discussions of Yeats's poetry and Irish history.