Niamh

[Wadsy]

DH and I love the name Niamh. We live near London. Interested to hear if other southerners have heard of the name and know how to pronounce and spell it? We are both Irish and it's obviously not a big deal over there! Potential girl will be brought up in the south of England though! Thanks

[pinkyredrose]

I pronounce it 'Neeve', that's correct isn't it? I'm in the south east.

[pinkyredrose]

Ps. It's a beautiful name

[Curiouserandcuriouser30]

I'm from the south east and I knew a Niamh. She used to introduce herself as "Niamh rhymes with Steve" to prevent mispronunciation.
It is a fairly unusual name in this part of the country, but not completely unheard of. I think it is lovely!

[Wadsy]

Yes pinky! Neeve. Glad you like it! It's a bit of a worry as our surname can lead to misspelling and mispronunciation and since I've been married, I have mourned the loss of my maiden name

[ZappDingbat]

I have a Niamh. We love the name. She has had it mispronounced on occasion but not to the extent that I have ever wished I named her something else. The most common mispronunciation is "Ny-ah-muh". Usually at the gp surgery. But once you are aware of it, its easy to listen out, especially as she has a very rare surname. Now in secondary sch, she loves that her name is not popular, but not too out there either.

If you like the name, go for it. It really isn't as rare now as it was 15yrs ago.

[MaudGonneMad]

I'm from Munster, so I'd say 'Nee-uv'. Lovely name either way.

[MrsRolly]

We have a Niamh, she's in juniors and loves that she is the only Niamh in her school. We are in the SW. We have some interesting spelling on invites/cards etc but she's never minded and it's not often pronounced wrong.
Gorgeous name (but obviously biased)

[villainousbroodmare]

I'm from Clare and I'd pronounce it Nee-uv. Gorgeous name.

[SuburbanRhonda]

It's been around for years as a popular baby name, hasn't it?

And it's even got its own English spelling now.

[llhj]

Gosh there's 6 of them in my dd's school. So I'd think more and more people are clear on the pronunciation. It's just in the the top 100 so not 'out there' as such at all.

[BikeRunSki]

It is popular amongst DS's peers (he is 7) - I think we know about 4 who are 6/7. We're on the boundary of S/W Yorkshire. I think it's commonly used enough for most people to recognise that Niamh is pronounced "Neeve".

[DramaAlpaca]

I live in Munster and pronounce it Nee-uv. I love it.

[Muskey]

Dd was going to be a Niamh but mil didn't like it very long story. I love it

[butteredbarmbrack]

We steered clear for DD 1 as we were concerned about confusion over spelling (we live in SW London), but went for it with DD 2 having decided if school etc could cope with some of the very long Sri Lankan surname in nursery, they could cope with Niamh!

Agree with others - it's a little unusual but most people have heard of it, and we also don't get offended by any eccentric or phonetic attempts at spelling. Next door neighbour gets a card from us every year with all our names but still goes with "Neve" when he sends us one, sfine....

[Wadsy]

Thanks all. I've seen it was 103 in the girls names registered specifically in England in 2014 so whilst it doesn't seem to be massively popular, it is not too out there either! It seems to have been really popular around the early 90s but has dropped a bit in popularity since then in England!

[KwickNC]

This is going to out me if people look at my other posts Niamh is my name I have a very very very Eastern European surname, it's a lovely name go for it!

Although people do tend to pronounce it wrong but that doesn't bother me but it might annoy others!

[zippyswife]

It's very popular round the home
Counties area that I live in. 2 girls out of 15 in dcs class. It was on my shortlist. I love it.

I have an unusual Irish name. Grew up near London and it never bothered me that it frequently gets mispronounced. I've loved having an unusual name.

What about aoife?

[Wadsy]

A couple of mates have recently chosen Aoife so we are giving it a miss!

[IoraRua]

Niamh is gorgeous. I hate the Nee-uv pronunciation though

Caoimhe is a lovely one, or Liadain? Aisling?

[RabbitSaysWoof]

I love Niamh, it is very popular where I am (SE) but never been a name that's everywhere IYKWIM I wouldn't get sick of others having the same name. Maeve is another name I love.

[mollkat]

I have a Niamh and still love the name 17 years on.
We hesitated for pronunciation reasons and trailed a few different names over her first week - Niamh was by far my favourite.
When practising saying it I laughingly wondered what it would be like to shout her name - it transpires that I can shout it no problem !

[FighterPilotsThumbs]

I'm from N.I. and the pronunciation here is 'Neeve'.

That said, it bores me to tears. It's the Irish equivalent of Sarah or Michelle. A bit ubiquitous and dated.