Aoife

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Honest opinions of this name?

There are a lot of negative comments on threads about Irish names, look at the recent thread by a poster whose son has an Irish name!

You get similar comments on threads about Scottish and Welsh names too.

Aoife is lovely and easy to say once told once - it's eefa - not exactly difficult to remember. Not everyone will know it at first glance but the same applies to lots of names from lots of cultures, it's not a uniquely Celtic phenomenon.

I went to school with a Caoimhe - we all remembered how to say and spell it after being told. It's been 15 years and I still remember!

I am astounded at the comments on MN about Irish names. If you said the same about a name from Nigeria or India or any country you would be lynched.

Irish culture is fair game on MN and has been for a long time. People start threads and use certain phrases deliberately to provoke certain reactions just for kicks.

This comes up on baby names once a week. It was Cillian last week.

My cousins daughter is called Aoife.
Its lovely, and there are no issues with pronunciation once people are told. Its easy to remember and anyone who says otherwise is just being a dick.
For some reason Irish, Scottish and Welsh names are all "too hard" for people on here.

Silly if you live in England. I have a very Welsh name and have had a lifetime of spelling it for people. I wish my parents hadn't been so daft.

Take the Eva as someone mentioned above.

Surely that is pronounced E-va if you do it phonetically? Yet people don’t have a problem saying Eeva.

@BuddleiaTime So should everyone from different cultures living in England only use English names???

Personally I think more people should use names the English find difficult because clearly they need they exposure. The more they hear them the easier they’ll find them to deal with.

@BuddleiaTime - I have a very Welsh name in England too which I have to spell out. I love it and will give my children a Welsh name too.

There's no guarantees with any names - I'm sure plenty of people with unusual names wish for a more popular and well known name and lots of people with a population well known name wish they had something more unusual!

I think most people nowadays have a vague idea that Irish names with lots of consonants aren't pronounced how an anglophone might think (even if nobody seems to agree on Saoirse). Aoife's one of the easier ones because we can latch it on to Eva-but-with-a-breathy-v, rather than something like Niamh which I suspect has maybe one and a half syllables? or Deirdre which we are used to pronouncing "incorrectly".

Irish culture is fair game on MN and has been for a long time.

Apparently so

So should everyone from different cultures living in England only use English names???

Apparently so.

I'm baffled as to where the posters who think like this & live tbh. Do they not mix with any other cultures through friendships, neighbours, school or work?

I think Irish people should start refusing to pronounce names like Penelope and Hermione and just start saying that they're too difficult to learn because they're not phonetic and they just look like a bundle of letters on a page. Because that would go down well.

It looks like it should be pronounced Ay oy fee.

It probably does need more coverage so that people in England get used to it which may happen. In the meantime your DD would regularly get her name butchered.

I have an unusual name, what happens is people know it or attempt to pronounce it or just ask how it's pronounced. No one butchers it & no one ever teased me for it at school, in fact an old school acquaintance gave her daughter the same name as she loved it.

Ha ha. I did go to school with a Penelope (Penny lope) once.

The only people who seem to get in a flap about phonetics are the English.

100%! And as pp have said, Irish is a far more easily decodable, regular language than English. Always amusing watching people get tied up in knots proclaiming that Irish names are soooooo hard.

OP, the English will learn to pronounce Aoife, it's not that hard. They cope with Polish names, Nigerian names, Indian names...one more nationality isn't that much to ask. I have an Irish name, I have travelled the world and used it everywhere I went. It is not a problem.

We have an Aoife. She is 6 years old , we live in Scotland , she is half Irish.
No problem with spelling, others pronouncing (except rarely). We love her name and so does she , especially the meaning behind it. I had the same doubts as you, but never looked back! Great taste .

rather than something like Niamh which I suspect has maybe one and a half syllables? or Deirdre which we are used to pronouncing "incorrectly"

One syllable - Neev. Irish people outside Dublin might say Nee-uv or Nee-av, which is also acceptable.

And what are you doing to Deirdre?

I love it OP, I’ve got an Orla already and Aoife is a strong contender for dd3. We have no Irish connections though which is making me doubt it but as you have then why not! It’s beautiful

Prince Will-i(eye)-am is how I’m going to refer to him from now on

I actually find peoples assumptions on here about getting her name butchered at odds with experience. She goes to school (,or , erm, used to ) with cooimhe, niamh, eilidh, ruaridh. I guess we are just culturally more used to these names up here?

I meant Caoimhe

@ChandlerIsTheBestFriend I understand the point you're trying to make.... But door and poor doggy rhyme don't they?!

Do!! Not doggy!

@Realladymarmalade I think people make it up as I've only come across it on MNs. In real life we live in a global world with lots of different names. Every place I've ever worked has introduced me to people with names I've never heard before, I doubt my experience is unique.