Caoimhe

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

I am not pregant.

Also English 😁

But have always really loved this name. Can someone confirm that it is normally pronounced (something like) Kwee-va but can also be said Kee-va, esp in NI?

Thanks to any Irish speakers!

I've only ever heard it as Kweeva.

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff cwee va in Cork. I always think you are Irish from your user name!

Kee-vay??

Uk here and friend of Irish heritage with this name tells people to pronounce it Keavy (rhymes with Kiwi)

She's completely wrong. Obviously she can tailor it to her own specifications if she chooses 😂. But it's not how it's pronounced

Isn't that pronounced Ava?

It’s Aoi- as in Aoife (I think)

The Irish form of Ava is Eabha.

It's KWEE-vah here, west of Ireland.

OP, I know someone with the name in your username and it always makes me smile when I spot you as he says fuck off quite a lot

There are a couple of Aoibhe's in dds class (in Dublin) and they say Ava. I guess people just do as they please. Any Caoimhe's I know are Kwee-ah though.

Also in Dublin, I do know two Caoimhes that pronounce it as Keeva but all the others say Kweeva. But Keeva is definitely more common in Derry and I would assume Northern Ireland in general!

Keeva in northern counties (ie not just Northern Ireland)
Qweeva in other parts
I prefer Keeva

Exactly, and a lot of Irish people aren’t naturals at the ‘aoi’ triphthong, either. The initial consonant is regional — it’s ‘kw’ where I’m from.

It’s a lovely name and a bit of a surprise!
I would have pronounced it Cow-im-he 😳

North West Irish, I can speak Gaeilge as well as English! Northern dialect pronounces Caoimhe as Keeva, southern/ west dialect Kaova, its not really a KW sound if that makes any sense, my own little one is pronounced Keeva but we spell it Ceva. There's a few in her class, with different spellings of the same sounding name...I've never seen any one with my spelling though, kiva is an accurate spelling for the sound though, my sister in law in UK has an Eefa ( Aoife) and my friend in Milan has a Kira ( Ciara)...

No !
it’s Eva .
Aoi in Irish is the ‘ee’sound .
Aoife - ee fa
Aoibhe - ee va

Thanks everyone! No @eggandonion 😁 the name came about from an old MN thread. I was due a namechange and just grabbed it as it made me laugh!

I thought it was pronounced Cam ish

This was my "unusable" name for DD. I deemed it unusable because we are English in England and I couldn't spell it reliably 😂 I still love it though x the sound, the look and the meaning.

DD also loves it although I think she's delighted that I didn't use it!

I've always said I'll use Caoimhe as my daughter's name if I ever have a girl, really love the name! I do know quite a few Caoimhes though so they're all gonna think she's named after them! 😅

It's pronounced Kweeva.

Pronounced Keeva in north of Ireland. I don't like the sound of the other pronunciation.

UK, North West

Well, it's an Irish name, so the pronunciation used in the North West of England will not be the definitive one.
There was one poster who knew someone called Síle (Sheila) and insisted it was pronounced Ceelay... Again, in England.

Yeah, we know that... we're not saying it's the definitive one. I was merely saying how we pronounced it in my cousins case, like everyone else was offering their variations with the same spelling.

Indeed. That’s just the wrong pronunciation, no two ways about it — the initial consonant is regional within Ireland, and there will be shades of regional difference in the ‘aoi’ triphthong too, but other than that, no. It’s like the (possible urban legend) about Baby Guy, pronounced ‘Gooey’, as in ‘delicious gooey chocolate mousse’.