Aoife?

[clairemiss79]

I love the name Aoife but living in England I'm worried that it will be constantly mis-pronounced. Does anyone know any aoifes?

MostWicked, if you've heard it pronounced before and you still get it wrong you have to ask yourself why. If people manage to get the word 'pizza' right then they can manage Aoife.

I think it really is thick and rude to get the name of a 12 year old classmate wrong.

Needaholiday why did you keep pronouncing Niamh wrong? Had you never heard it said?

Niamh is in the top 100 names in the UK now, and has been for years. People can say Freyja and that's new to the uk, so they should be able to get to grips with Aoife and Niamh, it's not that hard.

I had a similar situation with the place name 'Loughborough'. In NI, lough is pronounced 'lock'. A colleague of Exp's referred to his home town of "Luffburra". Not that i gave it much though but i assumed it was spelled something like how it sounded and when i saw "Loughborough" on maps i mentally called it "lock burrow". I said it aloud one day and exp gave me the face then burst into hysterics at me not realising Luffburra was actually Loughborough.

Not popular where i am. In 12 year i have come across one other Neve and that was this year when she started senior school. Never seen or met another one. Dd2 name was in the 900s. Never met or know of any others but hers is fine as reads as it ks written

I wish it was more popular here for her sake tbh

On the other hand, my daughter's name is Megan and it gets mispronounced all the time...

Which is why she prefers to go by Siobhán.

Makes no sense to me.

Oh, and I love the name Aoife.

monmouth I remember that article! I did think they were being unnecessarily sneery given that her name was Grainne Seoighe. I wouldn't have expected English-only speakers to be able to reading pronounce without practise.

I think the thing that strikes me in the UK is that nobody would ever suggest that an Iraqi person, or Spanish person, or who-ever-the-hell-else should keep their name in their country of origin. But for Irish people and Welsh people it seems a reasonable suggestion to anglicise their name to suit the majority language.

Aoife is really pretty

And I do think it's a slightly odd choice for anyone who isn't Irish.
Like me calling my child Jean-Christophe or Alejandro

a bit of a silly comparison rreally - an awful lot of English people have Irish parents or grandparents, don't they?

What do you like about it. The way its written or the way its read. Is the name pretty the way it looks written down iyswim.

Be prepared for xmas cards and invites at school to be adressed the way an English person sounds it out,

Lovely name, if you have Irish heritage. I pronounce it Eefa/Eefer.

In my accent there's no difference between Eefa and Eefer but I can see there would be if you had an accent that emphasises Rs (like west country)

Oh gawd, reading this I have a bad feeling that I say a friend's wife's name wrong all the time (we are not super close but see each other about once a year). She is an Aoife and I think I say it Eether, but never been pulled up on it. It's a nice name but is a fright to spell or say if your dd will spend a lot of time in England.

I agree with Nigella'sdealer. I lived in the UK for years and knew lots of people with some irish ancestry. I don't think calling your child Sean or Niamh is in the same league as calling your child jean-christophe or Alejandro!

Mind you, I wouldn't say that people shouldn't use french or spanish names. they can if they want to. I guess we all have our own 'line' though. Personally i'd draw the line at a Japanese name, like, Akiko or Kimiko.

Why draw the line at Japanese names, they are really easy to pronounce.

I love Suki!

When I said up thread that it was difficult to pronounce, I meant when reading the name.

I worked with someone called Aoife about 7 years ago, when I first saw it written I didn't know how to say it. I had no trouble remembering once I had been told the correct pronunciation. It's become a lot more popular in England since then.

As I said, I like it.

I guess, I'd personally draw the line at any name where I couldn't walk down the street unnoticed in its country of origin. Like Africa, Japan, China, but that's a purely personal line. I wouldn't judge anybody else that called their child Kimiko

We have an Aoife she is 10. I still utterly adore the name. We live in England, Only times it gets mis pronounced is the first time people come across it. Most common mis pronouncion is " O e fe makes me chuckle each time.

I do on a regular basis get asked " How do you pronounce that?" or "How do you say your little girls name" However it is one of those names you get so many " ohhh thats soo pretty " where you can hear it is utterly heartfelt.

I have never once regretted that we named her Aoife. I think it is a gorgeous name and every time I see it written down it makes me smile it feels like a "happy name" to spell I know that may sound insane but I feel that way about it. (only thing I am slightly worried about is that both dd1 and dd3's name are here on the board today and dh and I did wish more unusual names - though dd1's name is SO not unusual anymore but 17 years ago it wasnt common) & yet to see dd2's name or DS grins

going back to Aoife. I dont think you will regret it. Our Aoife doesn't mind it either she just rolls her eyes when someone cant spell it (we need to work a bit on manners there)

PS the only person who persistently gets her name wrong is her maternal grandmother. rolls eyes (aka my mother) who insists on spelling it Fifi..

Wake up people, we live and work in a global economy

Wide awake here. People will still pronounce it wrong and spell it wrong.
Many people I have come across, who have a difficult foreign name, either Anglicize a shortened version of it, or give themselves a British name.
People will get it wrong - not intentionally, but it will happen (a lot)