Neive

[Wigeon]

A friend has just has a little Neive Violet - give me your Neive-related thoughts!

Is it pronounced Nee-v (one syllable)? or Nee-ver (two syllabels)?

It is basically the same as Neve / Niamh or it is a name they have made up (is anyone else callled Neive?)?

Is the poor child going to have to spend their whole life explaining and spelling their name?

Obviously I could ask the first two questions to the parents but thought I'd ask here first!

Well that's naughty isn't it !

I before e except after c (and occasionally s).

Surprised that the concensus is that it's yuk given the unusual names which are discussed here.

My sister pointed out that the Spanish for "snow" is nieve, so perhaps they were going for that and spelt it wrong?!

Hm, not sure about rhyming it with "sieve". Think she is set up for a lifetime of explaining and spelling.

Perhaps you should get the spelling right before you're quite so critical, mildmanneredjanitor...

I love Niamh, but the spelling isn't very intuitive, especially to non-English speakers/readers.

I woule pronounce Neive like the ceive in conceive.

I'd be inclined to pronounce it "nayve". I think the Italian town might be pronounced that way too...

Nope. Your friend has either got it wrong or is deliberately choosing a made up spelling that she'll have to explain a lot in coming years...

I'd pronounce NEIVE like

reCEIVE
conCEIVE
deCEIVE

I have heard of nieve before but never neive.

Niamh is gorgeous but Neive is out there... I would assume that meant Niamh and say it that way but it does also look like Naive

Is she dyslexic? or stupid?

Niamh is a lovely name. Why the feck has she bastardised it with her loopy spelling?

I would ask her 'how do you pronounce her name?'

Is this the friend who just had the baby (last Monday)?

Was it in a text? Could she have made a typo in the text? You did say she was thinking of an unusual name...

thenextmrsdepp - i am suprised you know a Neva, i know of only two people with this name, my sister and my aunt. I have never come across this name outside my family.

Thank you everyone - interesting to see the general concensus is not positive! I have seen some pics and she is a very gorgeous baby, so looking forward to meeting her.

Hola Noah - yes, it's that one and nope, def not a typo - another friend has now met little Neive and says the parents just liked the name (and it rhymes with "conceive"). I hope this is the unusual name, and they didn't have a more unusual one up their sleeve! Violet is after the mother's granny.

I think you should be blunt witgh the parents and say 'sorry but isn't that a misspelling' Poor little lamb is going to be totally lumbered otherwise. such a pretty name and such a bad thing they've done to it. My mum's friend's daughter (do keep up) did something similar for her son - Haydn - but oh no he had to have it spelt 'Haydon' WHY???????

Am definitely not a good enough friend to say anything at all about the name - and not sure I would even if I was - am sure she's thought lots about it.

Did they think they were naming Haydon after the composer? A friend overheard new parents in the same maternity ward pronouncing their new baby's name as "Why-voh-nee" - turned out it was spelt Yvonne but that's how they thought it was pronounced! (othing to do with Neives though)

I'm fairly sure they knew nothing about the composer. I think it was how they thought it was spelt......

I know a Neive, (19 months) which is pronounced as Niamh, but her parents wanted an English phonetic spelling. I am not sure if that is what they got, or what was wrong with Neeve/Neave though!