Eithne Padraigin Ni Bhraonain was born on 17 May 1961 in Dore, an area of the remote parish of Gweedore, County Donegal in northwestern Ireland. It is a Gaeltacht region where Irish is the primary language. Her name is anglicised as Enya Patricia Brennan, where Enya is the phonetic spelling of how Eithne is pronounced in Irish; "Ni Bhraonain" translates to "daughter of Brennan". The fifth of nine children, Enya was born into a Roman Catholic family of musicians.

In 1997, Enya bought Manderley Castle, a Victorian Grade A listed castle home in Killiney, County Dublin for PS2.5 million at auction. Formerly known as Victoria and Ayesha Castle, she renamed the castle after the house from the book Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. In 2009, during her three-year break from music, Enya purchased a home in southern France.  Since the 1980s, Enya has attracted the attention of several stalkers. In 1996, an Italian man who was seen in Dublin wearing a photograph of Enya around his neck, stabbed himself outside her parents' pub after being ejected from the premises. In 2005, two people broke into her home; one attacked one of her maids and left with several of Enya's items. Enya raised the alarm in her safe room. The incident led Enya to spend roughly PS250,000 on security improvements, covering gaps in the castle's outer wall and installing bollards and iron railings.  Enya is known for keeping a low profile and very private lifestyle, saying: "The music is what sells. Not me, or what I stand for ... that's the way I've always wanted it". She is not married and is a surrogate aunt to the Ryans' two daughters. In 1991, she said: "I'm afraid of marriage because I'm afraid someone might want me because of who I am instead of because they loved me ... I wouldn't go rushing into anything unexpected, but I do think a great deal about this". Her relationship with a Spanish man ended in 1997, around the time when she considered taking time out of music to have a family, but found she was putting pressure on herself over the matter and "gone the route I wanted to go". She declares herself as "more spiritual than religious ... I derive from religion what I enjoy."  In 2006, Enya ranked third in a list of the wealthiest Irish entertainers with an estimated fortune of PS75 million, and No. 95 in the Sunday Times Rich List of the richest 250 Irish people. The 2016 edition, which listed its top 50 "Music Millionaires of Britain and Ireland", she emerged as the richest female singer with a fortune of PS91 million for a place at No. 28.  In 2017 a new species of fish, Leporinus enyae, found in the Orinoco River drainage area was named after Enya.

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