Aine or Niamh?

[SamWidgiz]

Aine (as in On-ya) or Niamh (as in Neev).

Which do you like best?

[NickNacks]

Prefer Aine myself.

[thesurgeonsmate]

I like Neev. I have never heard On-ya before. I would have no clue about where to even start spelling wither of them. I think I thought there was a 'b' in Neev.

[KenDoddsDadsDog]

Aine. If I have a second DD she will be Aine.

[Towndon]

Niamh. I didn't know how to pronounce Aine (how about Anya?) and thought it might be Ay-na or Ain.

[GwendolineMaryLacey]

Aine is lovely and much underused in the Irish name stakes. Niamh is nice too but more common.

[MummysLittleSunbeams]

It depends where you live & if you are prepared to be constantly correcting people. They are both lovely names, Naimh is the most familiar to the English eye & ear.

[lettinggo]

Both are lovely but there are a lot more Niamhs than Áines.

[SamWidgiz]

Thanks all. Gwen and letting that's what's putting me off Niamh tbh - we like to be a bit different. Plus we have another Irish spelt DD and people tend to pick up the sp/pron pretty quick.

[twogirls1more]

We have a Siena Niamh so I favour Niamh! :)

[Jeezimacasalinga]

Definitely Aine, I think Niamh is pretty but very overused at the moment

[thegingerone]

Aine (with the fada! It has got one , hasn't it? ginger begins to question her Irishness )
Niamh is a lovely name but there are less Aines out there.

[AVoidkaTheKillerZombies]

Niamh is lovely (biased!) but it is more common. There are three at preschool with variations in spelling.

[BunnyLebowski]

Aine. Definitely. But I'm very very biased on that one .

[SamWidgiz]

So if I throw into the mix the fact that there are already two A names in the immediate family, would that put you off Aine?

[mathanxiety]

Both are lovely.

I think Áine would certainly be more unusual but people would get used to the pronunciation/spelling. I don't think having more than one name starting with the same letter in the family would be too much of a problem either.

[Bandwithering]

Áine I think.

However, only by a bit and if as you say there are two A names in your family already then maybe Niamh would be a better choice for you.

[HappyHugs]

Love them both

[ViviPru]

Áine for sure. With the accent.

[LAlady]

My name is Aine. It's great for getting topics started at events but it's also very tiresome having to explain spelling, pronunciation etc etc over and over again (I live in England but have an Irish background). It also meant I was picked out by teachers at school because of my name. So it depends where you live. My children have very English names as a result.

Just a different perspective.

[proudfoot]

Niamh but both are nice

[NettoSuperstar]

I have a Niamh, so obviously I love it but it is quite popular now if that bothers you.