Aoife

[namedecisionshelp]

Honest opinions of this name?

Why make life difficult for your children?

Why is giving your child an Irish name making their life difficult? I know Claire's & Clare's or Lucie's & Lucy's who have to spell their name.

@BuddleiaTime how fucking rude are you?
Just one question mark needed here too.

I have to say my name is "with a Y" as you can spell it with a Y or an IE.
(Y is much nicer imo, and they should be pronounced slightly differently, but no one does)

oh, and mines a perfectly normal name.

Normal as in, easy for you English folk to say.

I'm English and in England and know how to pronounce it and spell it. It's a lovely name I think.

@HerRoyalCarbyLess
I would have spelled carby with an ‘ie’ myself

I really like it. Don’t worry about the pronunciation - once people are told, they will know how!

DD has an Aoife, two Avas, an Eva and two Evie's in her class. She says it's very confusing. Aoife is gorgeous but I'd be put off by the popularity of very similar sounding names.

Go for it, it's a beautiful name one of my favourites.

I'd personally ignore people who say no one will be able to say it, all you have to do is explain it the first time you meet them, you don't meet new people every single day either. There many quite common names are there that have to be explained on first meeting e.g Mia, Sara/h etc. If people continue not to be able to say a 2 syllable name after having it explained to them then it'll be largely due to ignorance on their part.

I notice no one ever says not to use Indian/African/Russian names as they could be difficult to pronounce, just Irish names.

Are you in any way Irish?

Didn't you read the bit where she says her children have Irish citizenship?

I can't imagine why anyone has any problem pronouncing Aiofe once they've been told. It has no complicated sounds in it at all.

LotusClover,

That's because it uses Irish phonics so attempting to pronounce using English phonics is irrelevant.

It’s lovely. Agree it’s well known enough for spelling and pronunciation to not be a problem. And even if it were, that wouldn’t put me off as you just need to set people straight!

@BrooHaHa

Aoife elephant.

As in, ee for elephant. That's all I can think of when I hear it.

That makes no sense at all. It looks like you are going out of your way to come up with an insulting association for the name. There is no r in the pronunciation of Aoife. It is pronounced Ee-fah, not Ee-for or even Ee-far.

BrooHaha

Your lack of English phonetics has made you look like a bit of an idiot here.

Aoife has a long 'e' sound at the start
Elephant has a short 'e' sound at the start.

Don't see how the two words are even phonetically comparable

That makes no sense at all. It looks like you are going out of your way to come up with an insulting association for the name. There is no r in the pronunciation of Aoife. It is pronounced Ee-fah, not Ee-for or even Ee-far.

I'm certainly not. I have a friend whose sister was nearly named Aoife, but they decided not to because of the elephant thing. Also, my aunt had a cat called Ceefa and a dog called Deefa. It's a thing.

@isabellerossignol I actually can't pronounce Penelope and Hermione correctly. Not when I first read them anyway. Penny-Lope and Hermy-own. I know that's not how they're pronounced, but the correct pronunciation of Hermione especially just won't stick in my head.

I have never known a Hermione, luckily, and the only Penelopes I know are French, so Penny-Lope is actually correct. I can never move to the UK, I'd be a laughing stock.

It's a thing.

Are you getting confused with Eleanor?

Also, my aunt had a cat called Ceefa and a dog called Deefa.

Yep cause there common pet names!

@Saoirse7 it's not based on phonics, I think it predates that.

Yep cause there common pet names!

I couldn't tell if that's sarcasm or not, so I googled it. Turns out they are common pet names (because it's c for cat, geddit)? Like E for elephant...

I'm not saying everyone thinks of it, but it's definitely not just me. And OP asked for our honest opinions, so that's mine.

*and that's mine

I've never been irritated by people asking how to say my name. It's just manners to check correct pronunciation of an unfamiliar name.

Telling me that my name doesn't make sense or doesn't sound how it looks or it's one of those weird Irish is just rude.

Ceefa is a common cat name?

Lol at people who speak English being concerned about phonics.

Aoife is a gorgeous name, getting more and more popular.