Talk to me about Niamh!

[Honeybee79]

I'm having DC3 by planned section next week. We have a DS and a DD.

We've got a pretty brief shortlist that we've been turning over in our minds and we both really, really like Niamh. I haven't really discussed our list with other friends/relatives etc, but the couple of people I have mentioned it to have said that Niamh would just create too many problems re spelling and pronunciation.

Niamh is a name that is just outside the top 100 and is really not that unusual in my view, plus we live in London where there are so many different names from all over the world, that I don't think it will necessarily be an issue. Though DD might not always live in London of course . . .

Anyway, how much of an issue do you think this might be? Are you a Niamh or do you have a Niamh?

Love it, but don't want to create issues for DD, or introduce her to people and meet confused looks!

We also like Nina, maybe that would be easier.

Thanks.

I think if we use it then we have to accept that there will be occasions where there are spelling and pronunciation issues, it's just v hard to assess how frequent those will be!

I'm not Irish and neither is DP, we just both love the name. The only spelling we'd consider is Niamh.

So difficult to decide when it's not going to be me who lives with the consequences of the decision!

I think it's a lovely name, I know one and she's a lovely little girl (10 now!) So I think of her .

I don't think it's difficult to spell/pronounce. It's definitely one of the more well known Irish names. Go for it if you both love it !

If you can search for it, I made a post about Niamh recently and it got a lot of comments! It's been one of my favourite names for many years but to be honest I am leaning away from using it because of the spelling issues. I don't want my daughter to forever be having to spell her name for people!

I tried to post earlier but lost it. Grrr. Anyway I'll try to remember what I said!

I live in Ireland and as you'd expect know lots of Niamhs aged from 40s down to teens, so in Ireland it might be considered a bit dated. However, to me as someone who isn't Irish & hasn't grown up with the name as it were, I think of it as fresh & beautiful. I think many people in the UK will see it as unusual but not totally unfamiliar. It's a gorgeous name.

Just bear in mind that in Ireland there are two different regional ways of pronouncing Niamh. One rhymes with Eve, which is how most people in the UK will say it, the other is something like NEE-uv, with a very soft second syllable. That's how it's said where I live & it's the pronunciation I prefer, but you won't get it outside Ireland. Someone has mentioned this pronunciation upthread & I agree with her. I shouldn't think it will bother you at all if you're not Irish though.

Anyway, bottom line is I think you should go for it

Thanks, especially to the posters who explained the two days of pronouncing it in Ireland!

@DramaAlpaca but the rhyming with Eve people are wrong!!!

(I may or may not be an arrogant Jackeen)

I love Niamh....I live in London and have only met one person with the name. I had a friend at school called Xanthe....now that was interesting to pronounce...

FlumpyMummy

😂😂😂

DD (7 months) is Niamh. We have had many compliments about her name, a few confused people about how to spell it and I know several friends/family YouTubed the pronunciation when she was born 🙊

Other fun we have had seems to be limited to the doctors where the receptionist likes to make up other ways to say her name:
Nemo
Nee-am-huh
Naomi

🙊🙊🙊

We love it and it really suits DD most people figure out the pronunciation or just need telling once, same for spelling.

I would still go for it!

I love the name! I daresay some people, on reading it, will pronounce it, "Knee-am", but they'll soon get used to, "Neeve". Irish names and their spellings are really gorgeous.

Hope all goes well for you and Niamh when she is coming into the world and your lovely family.

I love it. I've just pinched it for my (so far) imaginary daughter!

Lovely name, go for it. Ignore nonsense above about it being dated in Ireland, it's hovering about 40 in the top 100 for recent years.

Nina is nice but a bit dull.

I have to spell my name whenever giving it on the phone - not because it's so unusual, because there are different ways of spelling it ( think, Catherine, Catharine, Katherine, Kathryn etc.) Takes seconds, no hassle. Don't worry about 'consequences', there aren't really any!

Enjoy your lovely Niamh.

I live in SW England and Niamh is quite popular here. I'm a teacher and there a couple in each year group. No issues with spelling or pronunciation as people are quite familiar with it.

The two different ways of pronouncing it in Ireland have nothing to do with dialect.

They are 'the right way' and 'the wrong way'.

The diphthong IA should always be pronounced ee-ah (or with the schwa - 'ee-uh').
So Niamh should always be Nee-uv (a soft V as a pp said).

However, Irish people are pretty flexible about the pronunciation.

Thank you everyone, really helpful comments

I've spent my teenage /adult life always spelling my long surname....

It gets extremely tiresome....

I went through a stage of not spelling it, unless people asked... Until my temp employers misspelt name on envelope and I didn't recieve their offer of another contract.... It was delivered to a sound alike colleague's inbox... Who was away for a month....

Nina is a fab name

(with whom I rarely disagree)

I wouldn't do this personally with no Irish connection. Every single person she meets will ask her if she's Irish as it's such a well known Irish name.
Most people will spell it incorrectly and a lot will also pronounce it incorrectly and this will be potentially even worse if she moves to a non UK country. My DC is half Irish and we agonised over a Gaelic name with a difficult spelling (living in London) but I'm really glad we didn't now.
Just my opinion, it is a lovely name. Good luck.

I agree with Eloisa.

I really like Niamh but I wouldn’t use it with no Irish in the family.

It would be quite a bore to always be assumed Irish and having to explain you’re not.

I don’t like Nina though. And with a London accent it comes out Neenarr.

I don't have a Niamh but I do have an Aoife and we have no Irish connections.

People ask how to say it/ spell it and then they learn and thats pretty much the end of that. The Irish comments comes perhaps twice a year when we meet someone new and rare you get more from it than " oh" when we respond no.

Niamh is a lovely name go for it if you love it.