There has been much speculation over the name Eia Street. The most conclusive evidence on how it got its name comes from Miss Olive Macrory who wrote to a columnist in the Belfast Newsletter in November 1937 regarding a previous article he had written: "The information you have given is not quite in accordance with facts. Eia House was built by my father, the late Robert Augustus Macrory, solicitor.. of Belfast, on a portion of ground purchased by him. My father's uncle, Mr. Adam J. Macrory of Duncairn. had never any interest in this property. The Duncairn estate, the property of the late Mr. Adam J.Macrory, was and is, entirely situate on the opposite side of the Antrim Road from that on which Eia House stands. That my father got the idea of the name from the perusal of old Ordnance maps of London is correct. The tradition that the name represents the initial letters of the Christian names of three of my father's daughters is, of course, incorrect, since at the time the house was built and named he had not three daughters the first letters of whose names made up this combination, although, as it happened, in later years such a tradition might have had some foundation". (5th November 1937). Robert A Maccrory did go on to have three daughters whose names began with the letters - E, I, A: Elizabeth, Isabella and Anna.
Eia or Eye was a medieval manor in Middlesex, now close to the City of Westminster in Central London.
"Letter read from Mr Macrory requesting to be allowed to name his new street off Antrim Road Eia Gardens: Resolved that he be permitted to call it Eia Street". (28th May 1879).