Neve, Nieve or Niamh?

I have a 9 year old Niamh. We live in London. I can count the number of times it's been spelt/pronounced incorrectly on one hand. And one of those was by me - after a couple of glasses of wine I wrote all the thank you cards for her christening gifts spelling it Niahm

With regard to pronounciation, half my Irish family day Nee-uv (two syllables) and half day Neev, and they're all from Munster!

silly foreign names

I am not English.

Here in Scotland there are many names with unusual spelling.

Hardly "foreign".

Niamh is pronounced Neve in Scotland with one syllable regarfless of which way it is spelt.

Niamh. It's a beautiful name.

I gave my kids names like Edward and Daisy- nice and easy ( although that is not their actual names- just an example)

Yes but us Irish...we’re always so difficult.

Hear, hear, Raven.

I gave my kids names like Edward and Daisy- nice and easy ( although that is not their actual names- just an example)

Gold star for you. Not relevant to the OP, though, but never mind that - let's all applaud how well you did in not choosing one of those silly foreign names.

As someone who has an Irish name with funny spelling and has grown up and lives in a non-Irish country (not English-speaking) - stick to the real thing. :) don’t see it as a problem, see it as an ice breaker. It gives me carte blanche to forget other people’s names (because people forget mine), there’s always a good few minutes of conversation on Irish spelling segueing into names in general ... there are useful aspects!

My daughter's middle name is Niamh and I've only had to explain the pronunciation once. I think it's well known enough for people to get it right.

I gave my kids names like Edward and Daisy- nice and easy ( although that is not their actual names- just an example)

I;m with your OH.

Any other these variations will set up a burden in your child;s life - forever having to spelll her name.

I have a name that needs to be spelled- it's a pain, whenever I need to give my name to any organisation etc, I am already wating for the spelling question.

For that reason I deliberately gave my children names that have only one spelling option.

Our Prime Minister has just called her new baby Neve (to avoid the confusing spelling issue), and I must admit, I judge. I judge harshly.

They've made up the spelling, so it's not as if people are going to default to whatever made-up version they've personally chosen.

Niamh.

The two dipthongs that should always be pronounced as two syllables in Irish...

IA and UA are the two dipthongs that should always be pronounced in Irish. IA is more audible in Munster Irish but it's there in Connemara and Ulster Irish too. It's more usual to hear the name pronounced Neev, and very few people would bat an eyelid at it.

I would definitely choose the name Niamh. It is becoming more popular, and the whole 'lifetime of explaining to people' thing assumes that the majority of people a girl names Niamh meets are going to be incredibly thick.

N-i-a-m-h is as easy to learn to spell as r-i-g-h-t or any of the multitude of English words that have silent letters (possibilities include b, c, ch, d, g, h, k,l, m, n, p, t, and w) and irregular orthography or pronunciation. www.dolchword.net/printables/All220DolchWordsAlphabetical.pdf

Naimh. I had a "difficult to pronounce" Irish name once. With Anglicised and Americanised versions.

It is rarely a problem now.

Neve will be mostly assumed to be pronounced nev.

Niamh.

My daughter is called Niamh and her Grandma is Irish.

I think it is a beautiful name, made more magical by its spelling. The few times people have called her "Neem" by mistake has just made me chuckle tbh as who would want to call their child Neem?!

Niamh

I know Niamh is Neev, but I pronounce it in my head a Nee-am-eh?!

Me too! It's not an easy name to learn to spell!

Niamh, cos that is how you spell it...I’m not a fan of changing traditional names either. It’s popular in Scotland too, was on my shortlist.

Niamh. It's not an unusual name (it's lovely too!) so I cannot imagine people now knowing how to pronounce it.

Niamh is a beautiful name. Definitely go with that.

I know Niamh is Neev, but I pronounce it in my head a Nee-am-eh?! Why?! It's a beautiful name and I love it. That's why I couldn't use it though. Does anyone else do this? 😂

Niamh - every day of the week.

We didn’t choose any traditional Irish names for DC because I knew that DH’s family (he’s English) wouldn’t just spell/pronounce them wrong, but they would also go on and on and on and on... about it for years. (I have a teen now and I can guarantee that if we’d given him an Irish name they’d still be commenting on it now!)

There was no way I was going to choose a name with a correct spelling and then spell it wrong - just to keep other people happy.

(Typically - one of DH’s sisters then had a child and called her Neave! WTF?!)

Niamh

It's a lovely traditional Irish name so deserves the proper Irish spelling.

Whenever I see alternative spellings for names it makes me think that the parents must have heard the name, liked the sound of it, didn't have a clue how to spell it so made up their own spelling.