Irish names help!

[nothingseasy]

Hiya,
I'm calling out to all Irish speakers please.

I want to call my baby Ayveen In Irish. I've established from other threads that it's not Aoibheann or Aoibhinn or anything beginning with Aoi as this makes an ee sound. However nobody can conclusively say how it should be spelled.

I'd like to know what letters (diphthong/triphthong) make the aye/ay sound I am looking for. Do they exist in Irish?

Alternatives I've seen are

Éabhaoin
Éimhín
Aibhín

I personally favour the Aibhín but does ai in Irish make the sound ay?

Please help it's driving me mad!!

We are living in England and I want to keep a connection to my Irish heritage so I want an Irish name. We have trawled through them all and this is the only one we liked so when we found out it wasn't even said right we were devastated.

Please don't tell me not to bother with an Irish name in England or that I shouldn't give it an Irish name because they will have trouble e.t.c.

Help resolving the spelling is really all I am after.

Thank you x

Yes. I see what you mean.

Éabhaoin might work too, logically. Should there be a fada there?
I think Éibhín looks neater.

Your head must be melted by now @nothingseasy

I agree IsFuzzyBeagMise
Sory OP!!

Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of it

I have nothing intelligent to add. But I have to say, I love this thread.

It's an education, I give you that.

@nothingseasy

I think I say qwee.. for Caoimhe. Is that right?

I would say 'Queeva'.

Well I'd use 'é' and 'ín' to represent 'ay' and 'een' anyway, OP!

A chara,

tá suim agam san aimn Aoibhinn/Aoibheann. Táim ag iompar clainne agus is cailín beag í. Chuala mé daoine ag usáid 'É-bhín' agus sin an fuaimniú a thaitníonn liom, ach tá a fhios agam go maith go 'í-bhin' an fuaimniú atá ar an bhfocal 'aoibhinn'. Rinne mé taighde air agus fuair mé amach go raibh an t-ainm Aebfind ann fadó, nó Aibfinn, agus go bhfuil seans ann gur 'é' atá i gceist ag tús an ainm seo.

Dúirt cúpla duine liom go b'fhéidir go bhfuil an fuaimniú É-bhín ceart i nGaeilge na Mumhan. Tá cruinneas sa chaint agus sa litriú ag teastáil uaim. Táim ag féachaint ar Éibhín a usáid mar Éabha beag, ach is fearr liom an t-ainm Aoibheann má tá 'É-bhín' ceart sa Mhumhain.

Tá súil agam go bhfuil duine éigin le eolas in ann cabhair a thabhairt dom.

Mise le meas...

Something like that? I probably have plenty of mistakes in it.

That looks good to me! (But, again, no expert).

An-mhaith ar fad, Apile Seo duitse réaltín óir ⭐

Did a couple of people say É-bhín/ Ay-veen is a Munster pronunciation? Munster in particular, I mean? I can't remember at this stage.
Head melting here too

ag an réiltín!

Caoimhe is close to kweev/queev - I can't hear kee for caoi on teanglann. But it's veh (like in the word vet for animal doctor but without the t) at the end, not vah like vat... That's another sound that's dying a death. Aoife should be ee-feh - it's not spelt Aoifea. Baile is bo-ill-eh run together (o sound like in cot), not boll-yah. It's a bit more like boll-eh in Ulster but it's not the same sound as balla as in wall, it's definitely 'eh' not 'ah'.

I think if the words and sounds were said correctly in schools kids would have a much easier time with spellings and grammar. I find the spellings are quite logical when you know the system.

@LizzieAnt

Did a couple of people say É-bhín/ Ay-veen is a Munster pronunciation? Munster in particular, I mean? I can't remember at this stage. Head melting here too

Yes, earlier in the thread.

Bhí ionadh an domhain orm!

@Apileofballyhoo

ag an réiltín!

Caoimhe is close to kweev/queev - I can't hear kee for caoi on teanglann. But it's veh (like in the word vet for animal doctor but without the t) at the end, not vah like vat... That's another sound that's dying a death. Aoife should be ee-feh - it's not spelt Aoifea. Baile is bo-ill-eh run together (o sound like in cot), not boll-yah. It's a bit more like boll-eh in Ulster but it's not the same sound as balla as in wall, it's definitely 'eh' not 'ah'.

I think if the words and sounds were said correctly in schools kids would have a much easier time with spellings and grammar. I find the spellings are quite logical when you know the system.

Yes, you're right with 'eh' not 'ah'.

There has been a lot of slippage.

Lizzie we were talking about Ao=é in Munster except not when followed by 'i' so Aoi=í and wondering if the name was once spelled aobh and parts of Munster have kept the é sound. Something like that. I suppose particularly if it's a compound word Aobhfhinn like Caolfhionn but somewhere along the way it got an extra i added to it or possibly got mixed up with the actual adjective aoibhinn and maybe those are actually two different words anyway. Who knows.

Right, sorry, with you now again. Thanks
Yes, definitely 'eh'. I notice that too.
My own Irish isn't that great, it's still very much a work in progress. So if I'm noticing teachers etc getting things wrong, then the mistakes are glaring, not subtle. That's what worries me.

My own Irish isn't that great, it's still very much a work in progress. So if I'm noticing teachers etc getting things wrong, then the mistakes are glaring, not subtle. That's what worries me.

That's me and RnaG - I was making the effort to listen to improve my Irish but I found myself a bit shocked. I think you'd have to be told by someone in the know who to listen to. I think maybe audio books read by native speakers would be a good shout. I honestly don't know if there are any.

@Apileofballyhoo

Lizzie we were talking about Ao=é in Munster except not when followed by 'i' so Aoi=í and wondering if the name was once spelled aobh and parts of Munster have kept the é sound. Something like that. I suppose particularly if it's a compound word Aobhfhinn like Caolfhionn but somewhere along the way it got an extra i added to it or possibly got mixed up with the actual adjective aoibhinn and maybe those are actually two different words anyway. Who knows.

Isn't there a good chance that the original name got mixed up with the adjective?

See, who knows, Fuzzy. Did it become a popular name with the Celtic revival, I wonder? Because Deer-dra, Et-na and Ee-mer are not accurate pronunciations. Conor too I think. Kieran, Nye-all, Orla, there are a lot of them.

Did its similarity to aoibhinn the adjective give it that pronunciation? If the original bit at the end was finn or fionn as we spell on modern Irish, could that ever have had an ín sound? Does the ín sound come from words like binn and cinn but it's not actually accurate for Finn?

So many questions!

I think you're getting close to the nub of it, Apile.

I'd put a few punt on it, or a packet of Tayto.

What's wrong with Órla, Apileofballyhoo? Do you mean using it without the fada is the problem? Or is there something else?

No I just meant it should be Oar like the thing for rowing a boat, but people say Or like either or kind of or. I do it myself and I know a couple of people who have the name who also say Or-la. Which means vomit I think. There was a thread about it!

Yeah, I suppose without the fada, sorry, didn't really answer the question!

Like oh-ar-la then? It's a diphthong?

What about Emer? Isn't it Ee-mer?! Don't tell me it's Ay-mer!

Emer is É-ver! From my Celtic Civilization days. So the E is É and the m has a séimhiú. Orla should have a fada that's all. Like ór for gold. That's what it's from. Golden hair or something, I can't remember.

Think the old way of spelling it is Órfhlaith. But the new spellings got rid of loads of silent letters. Some people don't like that because you can't see the etymology of words without the extra letters.

OK thanks. Most people around here do say Oar-la I think, so I hadn't come across that. I thought it was just an English thing.