Niamh or Ada

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Me and Dh are having a hard time choosing girls names. We have a list and narrowed it down to Ada But we also really like Niamh pronounced Neeve

Just wanted opinions on both names

Niamh is lovely.

Niamh is pronounced Nee-uv.

I don't really understand why you'd use it if you don't have an Irish connection..

I actually like Ada. It's short and simple and pretty.

Ada definitely.

I love Ada!

Neev in NI, Cherry.

I'd go for Niamh, op. I think Ada is ugly, sorry.

Sorry - Ada is awful.

There are quite a lot of Niamh's around and I'm sure a lot of them have no Irish connections so don't personally think that is a problem!

I like Niamh, when spelled like that though lots seem to make up phonetic spellings. It seems pretty popular though.

I love Ada, it was our choice for ds 2 if a girl. It is less popular than Niamh, though I suspect it is on the rise as I have a history of choosing names which then sky rocket - there was an approx 2 year old Ada in a cafe we were in recently and I have seen it a bit on here.

Anyway in summary I would go for Ada but both nice!

CherryBonBon I have distant relatives who live in Ireland and my name is Irish as well. I know and Irish Niamh in Mead who pronounces it Neev :)
Does it matter whether you have Irish/Welsh/Scottish relatives or connections to pick those names?

Ada is also a family name :)

Niamh is lovely . Ada was a Les Dawson character who kept hoiking her chest .

Ada

Niamh is a great name not keen on Ada

Niamh is beautiful. It means light. Lovely name :-)

Ada is lovely, Niamh is too common.

Ada imo is with Martha and Josie and Elsie, very firmly in the scullery drudges' corner.
Niamh is beautiful but is not correctly pronounced Neeve; it has two syllables: Nee-av.

'I know an Irish Niamh in Mead'

Niamh is Neev in some Irish dialects btw.

I'd go with Niamh. I think it's much prettier and Ada is likely to be misheard as Ava a lot which would drive me mad.

I'm from Dublin and would also pronounce Niamh as Neev, I've heard a few different pronounciations in various parts of Ireland. Personally I think Niamh is a very boring name. I went to school with about 12 of them in the 80s/90s. To me it's about as interesting as Louise or Sarah ie fine but fairly dull. I don't like Ada particularly either, reminds me of the words aid or AIDS, sorry.

I have a one year old Niamh, I hope she doesn't start nursery with 10 other Niamhs.

I'm not keen on Ada.

Ada was a Les Dawson character who kept hoiking her chest

Yes!

It may sound like Neeve / Neev but it's a two-syllable word (Ni-amh) so even when not as distinct as with an accent such as cherry's example, it's still at least Nee-yv.

Also the "mh" sound in the Irish language is more of a "vf" sound rather than just "v".
It's a softer sound.

Ada is gorgeous and underused, please use it!

I hate the sound of Niamh, it sounds harsh and boring at the same time (I always think, would people choose it if it were just spelt Neeve?)
Sadly I'm not too keen on Ada either, sorry.

As a born and bred Dubliner, I've always pronounced Niamh as Neev. However, people from some counties pronounce it Ni-av, or Ni-uv, all three pronunciations are valid. People seem to forget that pronunciation in Irish varies, it's not all one standard. I think the Ni-av/uv one sounds awful though, Neev is a much nicer sound.

Anyway, Niamh is a nice name, but agreed its not too exciting. However I think if you are in forrin parts it's probably much more exotic sounding to locals (same with Aoife I suppose, I keep seeing that on here).

And I much prefer Niamh to Ada!

I'm from Dublin too

Another Dub here and it's always Nee-uv to me.