Irish names help!

There are a few mentions of Éibhín as a girl's name when you look it up on Google.

Interestingly, Séamus Heaney had a granddaughter called Aibhín. He wrote a poem called, 'A Kite for Aibhín'. This is closer to the anglicised form 'Aiveen'.

There was a debate on here about the pronunciation of Aoibheann in 2014. I wasn't around for it :)

That's interesting, SeanChailleach.

So, the op could use Aoibhín/Aoibhinn/Aoibheann for Aiveen as the standard spelling. Or use an alternative, personalised version as Éibhaoin, Éibhín, Aebhín.

And yes Éibhlinn is possibly from aebglan which appears in dil.ie in the list under oíb. Formed by adding adding -ghlinn (clean, bright, pure) instead of -fhinn.

Not gonna lie, I am Irish and maybe it's the two glasses of wine I have to celebrate St Patrick's Day but I am really struggling to work out what you are trying to achieve here. I do think you are in danger of ending up with a name that neither the Irish or the English know how to pronounce, particularly in England if you end up with a fada in the spelling. As you have agreed that most names are made up, just spell it however you want and tell everybody how to pronounce it when they inevitably ask!

Thanks SeanChailleach.

It may be. There are ways of proving it.

@lizzieant what Pedersen says is oíbhin is from oíb +finn. Oíb however is spelt lots of ways you can see in dil.ie and it looks as if some were the sound we now write as aobh, yes. Although adding Finn to the end would influence the final consonant, your mouth doesn't anticipate it in the initial vowel quite so much as with just one syllable.

One thing I'd be wary of though is that, because of our history, in many places the use of Irish names died out for many years. There has been a recent resurrgence in their use. So that makes it a bit more likely that the recent pronunciation of Aoibheann as Ay-veen is an error, rather than a very old pronunciation remembered and passed down the generations. Maybe?

I love your theory btw SeanChailleach - you could well be right. The fact that there's an old Irish name Éibhleann with much the same meaning an Aoibheann is interesting and adds support, I think.

So was Aobh or it's equivalent (ay-uv) the start of the name at some point in history? I don't know. It's not now anyway.

Sorry, I mean from the point of view of the name's spelling here obviously! I'm even confusing myself now

The spelling most used for the name is Aoibheann, which originates from Old Irish "oíbind"
I know very little about Old Irish SeanChailleach, but looking up the oí sound of Old Irish gets you the vowel sound in void (just to add to the confusion)

Aobh, as part of a word (eg taobh, craobh) is pronounced ay-uv in modern Munster Irish, but not in the other dialects afaik. (I'm saying ay to rhyme with the English word hay btw.) Adding the i to get aoibh makes a big difference though and changes the sound completely to something a bit more like ee - at least in modern Irish.
So was Aobh or it's equivalent (ay-uv) the start of the name at some point in history? I don't know. It's not now anyway.

If we reach consensus on this, we should put it up as a pinned tweet on this board.
You're right IsFuzzyBeagMise
Sorry OP, I don't know if we're much help to you!

I think there are other words where aoi is pronounced ay, and for the same reason, that it was two separate words.

When this thread started, I thought the ay was just like the sound John Gráinne made us practise at Coláiste Bhríde in Rannafast. You can hear it on teanglann.ie if you look up aoí, aoibh, aois. It's a subtle difference in the Ulster dialect to the Munster dialect. But it's too subtle to explain the "Ay-veen" pronunciation.

There are a few other names like this, where the accepted spelling of the name as at odds with much-loved pronunciations. Sorcha and Róisín spring to mind - let's not discuss them here though.

Ultimately, I think "Aoibhinn" is the best spelling for the pronunciation you want, OP. As @Apileofballyhoo says, Éabha is a different name. In Ulster the bh would sound like w. The initial slender vowel affects the sound of touching consonants too.

It would be great if there was a really detailed definitive Irish name dictionary, wouldn't it?

Yes @spookycookies Aoibheann pronounced Even is an established name with an established spelling. The people pronouncing it Ayveen, however numerous, are pronouncing it incorrectly.

So it's an established name with an established spelling but you've decided that they are all wrong and everyone who has ever used this name with any alternative spelling is also wrong.
Why give your child a name which no one will be able to spell. You can't even spell it!

@Apileofballyhoo, ah, shur now