Keeva... Discuss please.

[OnNaturesCourse]

(Key Vah)

Keeva... Your thoughts?

Candy I’ll admit, I went through school as “miss...errr...hmmm” “yep that’s me”. And it was always read wrong in assembly!

But it never caused me any great anguish.

Caoimhe - usually pronounced keeva in NI and Queeva in the Republic of Ireland.

It’s horrid and tbh, kind of an insult to Irish language.

Seemingly with my family living in the UK, they are obsessed with anglicizing my daughters name. Sorry, it’s not on - if I wanted her to have an English name I would have given her it. It’s as bad as people who couldn’t be arsed to learn how to spell peoples name properly from other languages, but I’ve found that Irish tends to get a really bad doing in particular.

That being said, I live abroad and don’t have any problems, mainly because it’s so multicultural, nobody knows how to spell or pronounce most names so I always ask.

So is the spelling of Kevin an insult to the Irish language too?

Because Keeva and Kevin = Caoimhe and Caoimhín

Candy I agree about the increasing popularity in the UK of really quite dated Irish names.

Niamh, in particular, really baffles me. It's like calling your baby Joanne/Lisa/Claire.

I suppose they’re new and exotic names to the UK

Makes me wonder what foreign names I might like that people from other countries would laugh at. I'm sure there are lots of French names that sound sophisticated to us that sound anything but to their ears.

Heads up there is a new kids programme call Kiva can do, it'll probably end up being linked to that?

Quoted you on another thread Candy.

Oooh there was a brilliantly entertaining thread a few months ago about French girls names and how they are actually perceived in France vs by us unenlightened Brits.

Will see if I can find it.

So is the spelling of Kevin an insult to the Irish language too?

I think Kevin is an insult to any language.

I prefer the Caoimhe spelling, and I'm English with no Irish connection. Aside from being traditional, it looks prettier.

It seems whenever we talk about Irish names, it always comes down to the problem of English people not bothering to learn knowing how to spell/pronounce them, but the only way this is going to get fixed is by exposure. Forty years ago here Siobhan and Sinead were exotic, and now everyone knows how to pronounce them. 20 years ago we got to grips with Niamh. Nowadays it's Aoife. We're slow learners, but we do learn.

Saying that, I do understand why you wouldn't want your child to have to be the trailblazer. Some of us can be really annoying about "foreign" spelling, which is ironic considering the utter mess that is English spelling...

@Candyyumyum My best friend is callled Kevin - less said about it the better

I just don’t think Keeva is a nice spelling for such a lovely name.

Love it my daughters name. Spelt the Irish way though I'm now starting to spell it Keeva. So it's easier for her literally nobody pronounces it right.

The other spelling is much nicer.

Love Caoimhe. I prefer the Queeva pronunciation, but Keeva is good too.

The Keeva spelling is an abomination. There's no K or V in the Irish alphabet, ee wouldn't make the same sound as in English, and you couldn't have an e and an a either side of a consonant. So the only part of that spelling that works in Irish is the A on the end.

Sorry when I saw it I immediately thought Kiev🤔 (the chicken variety)

Caoimhe is far nicer, people will learn how to pronounce it after a few botched attempts.

'There's no K or V in the Irish alphabet'

Someone needs to get the phone books out and inform all the people in Ireland with the surname Kavanagh that they are letting the country down badly.

I'll start with Cavan and Monaghan.

My surname is like Kavanagh. I had no idea I was letting down ireland

Candy beat me to it
My family are Irish but my daughters have very traditional, very well known, very English names, youngest DD only has four letters in and we don’t really expect to have to spell it and yet people constantly spell it incorrectl - four different spellings so far!!!! - drives her potty. My DBS DC however have the most complicated old Irish names imaginable, and yet rarely spelt wrong by others cos they ask instead of assuming.

You are a disgrace to the emerald isle, CatsPaws. Shame on you and whichever ancestor accepted the anglicisation.

Tsk and tut.

It was fairly pointless if they as every English person still either mispronounces it or asks me to spell it! I don’t mind though, I like having an unusual-ish name.

There were a few "Caoimhe" in my class back when I was at school in ireland and it was always pronounced Key-vah /Key-vuh

The "keeva" spelling is dreadful, it looks like you can't spell the real name properly so have decided to spell it phonetically instead

Makes me think of the bricks called Keva planks, pronounced the same. (Great bricks btw!)

I like Keeva.