The Liffey was previously named An Ruirthech, meaning "fast (or strong) runner".[3] The word Liphe (or Life) referred originally to the name of the plain through which the river ran, but eventually came to refer to the river itself.[4] The word derives from the same root as Welsh llif (flow, stream), namely Proto-Indo-European lē̆i-4.[5]It was also known as the Anna Liffey,[6] possibly from an anglicisation of Abhainn na Life, the Irish phrase that translates into English as "River Liffey".[7] James Joyce embodies the river as "Anna Livia Plurabelle" in Finnegans Wake.