Irish baby girl names

[Ek3009]

Hi I need some inspiration!

7 weeks to go and no further forward with names 🙈.

Baby girls surname will be Kilpatrick and we both have one Irish parent so want an Irish first name but really struggling to find something that we love.

Any suggestions welcome!

I honestly dont know how I have gone my whole life, years as a teacher in Ireland, and I have never come across someone with the name Aoibheann who pronounces it Even, but I have come across dozens, every girl/woman in fact, who pronounce it Aveen.

I would still call my daughter Aoibheann (Aveen) if my English DH could just get past all the vowels.

Éabha is pronounced Ava. So I suppose you could have a diminutive version of that as Éaibhín, pronounced Ai - veen.

@Smallsteps88 is right. Aoibheann is not Ayveen. It can’t be — that combination of letters don’t make those sounds. ‘Aoi’ is always ‘ee’ as in Aoife, Naoise, draoicht. ‘Eann’ isn’t ‘een’ but ‘en’ or ‘own’ (rhyming with ‘clown’) as in ‘ceann’ depending on preceding letters.

It’s the kind of mistake you could easily understand if a non-Irish speaker picked the name off a website, as those are riddled with errors, but harder to understand from Irish people who will have done Irish at school. But it happens, clearly. See also people pronouncing Sorcha as ‘Sore-sha.’

Totally agree with @Inching and @smallsteps88 re pronunciation. Aoibheann is probably closest to Eavan, like the poet Eavan Boland.

Aoibhín is Eeveen.

@SqidgeBum you are right. I too am born bred reared here. Its pronounced aveen.

I only know one Aoibheann. Her mother's first language is Irish and she pronounces it EEven. Which makes perfect sense phonetically.

I also know an Aoibhínn, which is pronounced EEveen, again it's phonetically correct.

For all those having a go at sqidge type in how to pronounce Aoibheann in Google.

@SqidgeBum

I honestly dont know how I have gone my whole life, years as a teacher in Ireland, and I have never come across someone with the name Aoibheann who pronounces it Even, but I have come across dozens, every girl/woman in fact, who pronounce it Aveen.

I would still call my daughter Aoibheann (Aveen) if my English DH could just get past all the vowels.

Many people get it wrong. And then perpetuate the incorrect pronunciation. This is how.

Please, as an Irish speaker, who presumably understands how to read Irish and how Irish phonetics work, how do you make the sounds ay and veen from the letter formations in the name Aoibheann? Your understanding of Irish shouldn’t allow you to pronounce that word incorrectly.

@Howcanwedoitall, where do you think the people who mispronounce it get their misinformation from? Well, Google and batshit US baby name websites.

Not in the least having a go at @Squidge. I can well believe she’s taught dozens of Ayveens, but that doesn’t alter the fact that Aoibheann can’t be pronounced Ayveen unless you rewrite Irish-language phonetics. It would be like saying you’ve called your baby Fionnuala but are pronouncing it Andrew.

@Howcanwedoitall

For all those having a go at sqidge type in how to pronounce Aoibheann in Google.

Google, the creator of the Irish language?

I wonder if, like many other Irish names, there's a regional pronunciation difference with Aoibheann?

Naoise is a boys name.

@Drbrowns

Naoise is a boys name.

It is. There are women with the name though.

Yes, Naoise is a boy’s name. DS is called it. The ‘aoi’ vowel cluster is still pronounced ‘ee’ (roughly — there’s a slight diphthong), as in aois, daoine, cathaoir, regardless of the sex.

Yes sorry - I wasn’t meaning to have a go at anyone either! I know it’s a really common mistake to pronounce Aoibheann Ayveen, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a mistake.

The name “Ayveen” does exist, just not spelled that way. It’s also not down to regional variation. I’m not a fluent speaker but Irish is a phonetic language with clear rules (unlike English) and you can’t get those letters to make those sounds.

There’s loads of crap misinformation on google (understandably as can be seen from this thread), but the Irish posters who will have learned Irish at school must know that “aoi” is always pronounced “ee”.

I think Eileen is a cute little name.

Enya
Brogan
Mairead
Aine
Brenna
Eimar

Oh, I have a phonetics question for the Irish people gathered here:

Why is it "Aisling" but "Ailis"? (Ie, why a short a sound in the former and a diphthong ay in the second?) I get that the first i in Aisling is because it has to be i/i either side of the s to make sh, but why do you pronounce the i in Ailis?

Thanks!

There are regional variations in pronunciation in Ireland.

My father’s family in the SE say ‘Say-er-sha’ for Saoirse, RO-sheen (not Rosh-een) for Roisin and Key-va for Caoimhe. Also Ma-RADE not MUH-rade for Mairead. There are lots of other examples, I’m sure.

Yes there are of course regional variations @LandedInMyLap, but not in the pronunciation of Aoibheann.

@HarrietM87 is right regarding the pronunciation of Aoibheann. The Ay-veen pronunciation is very common though - maybe it could be considered an anglicised version of the name?

I love Sadhbh but if you live in England she will probably be forever having to help people out with it.

I think Mairead is a gorgeous name that wouldn't cause too many problems pronunciation wise here either?

Fia/Fiadh
Saoirse
Emer/Eimear
Caoimhe
Muireann
Sadhbh
Realtín (you may need to double check that spelling though)
Clíona
Ríona

I like a Gráinne as mentioned above. Hasn't Fiadh peaked, become almost parodic, now?

Cushla