Ireland has no shortage of lake and coastal islands that once served as sites of early Christian retreat, hermitage, or monastic settlement, and the naming convention here follows a familiar pattern: a small, naturally bounded piece of ground, separated from the mainland by water, chosen by someone at some point as a place set apart from ordinary life. The name implies a dedication or an association, though to which saints, and under what circumstances, remains frustratingly unclear from what survives.

The island sits in Mayo, a county with deep early medieval ecclesiastical roots, where figures like St Patrick and numerous lesser-known local saints left their marks on the landscape in the form of holy wells, pattern sites, and ruined churches. Islands in particular were favoured by early Christian communities across Ireland, offering both the practical seclusion needed for contemplative life and a symbolic remove from the secular world. Whether Saints Island once held a church, a hermit's cell, or simply a burial ground is not currently documented in any detail that has made it into the public record, which means the place remains one of those quiet anomalies, named with obvious intention, yet waiting for its full story to be recovered.