Niamh or Nola?

[Amdal1]

Which do you like better? The middle name will be Lisa for sentimental reasons.

We like both but I’m concerned that Niamh is quite common now but on the other hand Nola may be too unusual!

Thanks for the help!

I like nola but nola Lisa just makes me think of Mona Lisa

Niamh. I think most people in the UK will be familiar with it these days, and it flows better with Lisa.

Definitely Niamh.

Nola sounds like an acronym for something (it autocorrected to all capitals so maybe it is?!)

Niamh.

Niamh every time!

"Nola? Do you mean Lola?" "No, I said Nola!"
Too comic, too much recipe for confusion.

I really like Nola but don’t think Nola Lisa sounds nice together

I much prefer Nuala.

Nola Lisa doesn’t work at all

How about Finola?

I absolutely hate the name Niamh. Is stepdaughters name, and I love her to bits but it's never a name you can buy on a badge or a hairband and no one can pronounce it properly. It's a big fat no from me

Niamh Lisa sounds much better than Nola Lisa. Agree with pp about the Mona Lisa coming to mind. Nola is also an abbreviation for New Orleans, Louisiana.

@Codswallop20

I absolutely hate the name Niamh. Is stepdaughters name, and I love her to bits but it's never a name you can buy on a badge or a hairband and no one can pronounce it properly. It's a big fat no from me

The OP hasn’t said where she is. In Ireland Niamh will be absolutely fine. Even in England and Wales it spent 16 years in the top hundred names and is still in the top 150. It’s not rare and the pronunciation is simple enough that if someone hasn’t come across it before it’s easily corrected.

Niamh is lush😍

@Codswallop20

I absolutely hate the name Niamh. Is stepdaughters name, and I love her to bits but it's never a name you can buy on a badge or a hairband and no one can pronounce it properly. It's a big fat no from me

How could anyone not pronounce Niamh its litro Neev

In England - niamh not common so I think difficult to pronounce.

The other name - awful.

Niamh, definitely.

It's a pretty well known Irish name in England, IME.

@NuffSaidSam

Definitely Niamh.

Nola sounds like an acronym for something (it autocorrected to all capitals so maybe it is?!)

It is, for New Orleans.

I agree, definitely Niamh. Lovely name.

Prefer Niamh

How could anyone not pronounce Niamh its litro Neev
Yeah it's fine once you know, but don't pretend you've never seen it written down and pronounced it as Ny-am.

I hate the name Niamh but neither option works with Lisa so it depends whether you'll just call her by her first name or whether you'll use both names.

How could anyone not pronounce Niamh its litro Neev

As girlmom21 said the pronunciation isn't obvious from the spelling unless you speak Irish (in which case it's very obvious).

The other thing is that it's not actually properly pronounced Neev. It's NEE-uv. A lot of people do say Neev, and it's quite often said like that in Ireland too, especially in some areas. But it's a bit of a mispronunciation all the same.

Of your choices, I much prefer the name Niamh OP.

forvo.com/word/niamh/

I have a Niamh. Some people mispronounce it but it’s easily corrected. I’ve never had a problem finding named items. It’s not super uncommon at all.

Niamh is so much nicer than Nola.

Thanks everyone, DH much prefers Niamh anyway so he’ll be happy! We live in the Scottish highlands with Irish roots so Gaelic spelling isn’t a problem for people here.

The other option I really liked was Marnie but DH hates it, he thinks people would confuse it for Barney

I have a Niamh. It's very well-known now, and we've had no trouble with anyone mispronouncing it or misspelling it. (The only person I've met who wasn't sure how to say it is my colleague who's not from the UK.)

For me, it strikes the right balance between well-known (everyone seems to know a Niamh) and not too common (never been another one in her nursery or school). It was low in the top 100 for years, and now just a bit outside the top 100.

I vote Niamh!