Neve/Niamh

[stellarfox]

What do you think of Neve? I’m only a very small % Irish (mostly English) so I don’t think I could really use Niamh could I?

Niamh is lovely. I’m in NZ and lots of people have Niamhs and people know how to say it and spell it. Caused a bit of confusion when our PM called her daughter Neve, the media reported it as Niamh to begin with and at the end of her press conference she had to spell it out.

A lot of people wouldn't know how to pronounce Niamh, whereas everyone should be able to pronounce Neve. Unless your dd is growing up in Ireland.

I think the child will spend a lot of time being mildly irritated that other people can't spell it or can't pronounce it, unless you live somewhere where it is a more common name. Depends whether you think that is an issue.

Niamh is a beautiful name.
I've not got any Irish blood, neither does DH, but both our DD's have Irish names.

My daughter is Niamh. Until she was about 6/7 everyone used to spell or pronounce it wrongly. Now, at 11 the name seems to be more common and most people get it right.

I’m in England and through work we have dealings with a Niamh and a Saiorse (both of whom are Irish). People regularly get both the pronunciations and spellings wrong. (I’m not confident I’ve got the latter right!)
I don’t even think Niamh actually sounds that nice tbh. It sounds like a nasal sort of whine (sorry).
I’m normally a fan of ‘if you can’t say anything nice then don’t say it’ but I do think it’s possible the spelling/ pronunciation issue will most likely be a reasonably regular issue so if that is likely to bother you then it’s worth reflecting on.

@RavenWings no i haven't had a humour bypass. Just Leprechaun comments are very annoying to me and insulting to me. No need to be rude about it. I don't believe I was rude to you. Not everyone on the internet is going to share your humour. Anyway for the OP I think using the NIamh spelling is totally fine. It's a much more common name outside of Ireland now

I'm Irish - I think if anyone is qualified to make comments about leprechauns, it's an Irish person. Find someone else to eyeroll at.

And if you misinterpret jokey comments, that's really not my problem.

Does my bap in when people badly anglicise Irish names

How is "Neve" badly anglicised? It seem quite well anglicised to me.

I often wonder where all these people live who cannot pronounce Niamh. It is not uncommon like Caoimhe and it is not hard to pronounce. The name has grown rapidly in popularity, there are thousands of little Niamh's running around the UK, most people should know how to pronounce and spell it.

The name only contains 5 letters and people manage on a daily basis to pronounce and spell names much more complex from across the globe. Please go with the Irish spelling. Anyone who cannot learn how to spell and pronounce the name correctly is in my opinion just being lazy.

I often wonder where all these people live who cannot pronounce Niamh. It is not uncommon like Caoimhe and it is not hard to pronounce. The name has grown rapidly in popularity, there are thousands of little Niamh's running around the UK, most people should know how to pronounce and spell it.

I lived in SE England and had never heard of it until I started posting on this board while looking for names for my DC1. Never knowingly met one or seen it written down apart from here.

Niamh has steadily increased in popularity beyond Irish communities in the last twenty years or so. It’s quite plausible that new parents who don’t come into contact with many children or young people might not have encountered any Niamhs. I know three, but they’re all under the age of twenty.

I love Niamh. Gorgeous, stylish, suits many kinds of people.

I teach at a uni and know a couple, so they're in their early twenties. None my own age - but then we all knew how to spell Siobhán and Roisín, which were among the most frequent Irish names in England our generation. And Welsh Siân. It's really no harder than any of those.

In fact it's barely harder than Chloë or Isla - their letter combinations are not pronounced in the most "obvious" way in English either. I remember when Chloe was still unusual my grandmother was very confused by the spelling. It's all what you're used to, and people learn.

Yes, she had to be prevented from calling someone Shlow. Lol.

I'm also irish. We don't all think the same But I didn't mean to upset you.

I would be confused and wonder how you wanted to pronounce Neve - either Neev or Nev (Like Neve Campbell?)

But I would be clear of pronunciation of Niamh.

I prefer the look of Neve, however.

Blimey, I'm really not much use am I

Maybe a better anglicised version would be Neave?

Personally I wouldn't know how to pronounce Niamh. I know a male Niam pronounced Ni am.

The name only contains 5 letters and people manage on a daily basis to pronounce and spell names much more complex from across the globe

It's not the number of letters but the unusual combination of them!

How is "Neve" badly anglicised? It seem quite well anglicised to me.

Because Niamh is pronounced Neeve (or Nee-uv) and Neve looks like it’s said Nev?

I think it’s culturally insensitive to pick an Irish name and then change the spelling.

Niamh is a beautiful name! Doesn't matter at all whether you are Irish

Thanks all! I love the name and I’m going to keep both of my list for now, but the fact that people seem to have a hard time spelling it (and that there are multiple spellings of the name) does put me off a bit!

Neve looks like it’s said Nev

Does it? Then what's the point of the e after the v? That should change the sound of the first e from "eh" to "ee", according to my year 4 grammar lessons.

I'd say it's a perfectly good anglicisation.

I say go with whatever you want OP! DS and I fell in love with a Scandinavian name- we are both British but loved the name so much we used it for DS and don't regret it at all. 😊

For the poster wondering where people come from who can’t pronounce ‘Niamh’ - the answer in my case (and colleagues) is London and the SE. We all work in a literary field so it’s not as if we don’t come across lots of different names either.
We can pronounce Niamh once it’s been explained (it’s not a difficult sound) but most people stumble when they see it written and a few (ahem my boss ) persistently get it wrong despite having had it explained. That may well be down to her eccentricities but the fact is it DOES frequently get mangled.