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!

The ones I know pronounce it as Kee-Vva

How could you choose a name for your child that you don't even know how to pronounce.

I'm Irish it's Kwee-vah to most people in the Republic of Ireland but I have heard inorrectly prounced Kee-va in Northern Ireland and in places where people have no understanding of the Irish language.

I like both names but they are different.

If you prefer Kee-va, then it's better spelling it Keeva, rather than Caoimhe.

@SleekMamma as explained in the OP, I am not choosing a name for a child. I have just always liked the name, and I do know how to pronounce it but double checking with native Irish speakers.

Oh! So sorry I missed that crucial bit! Apologies.

Keeva in NI kweeva in ROI

Kweeva. I teach a lot of Caoimhes at school.

I think it's a lovely name, OP.

Caoimhe is actually one of the more difficult names to say properly if you don't have Irish OP. The Kwee-va pronunciation (the version where I live) is a bit of an approximation as you say.
I have heard an Irish speaker from Kerry say that many or most Irish Caoimhes he's met don't actually pronounce their name correctly, by which he meant they're not saying it correctly in the Irish language . And he didn't mean the Kee-va version in the north. He meant that if you start saying the name with Kwee/Quee at the start (as in the English word queen) then you're saying it wrong. The C in Caoimhe is pronounced in the back of the mouth and the lips don't really need to move for the first syllable. Unlike queen.

Sorry, this is my own poor and very non-expert attempt at an explanation, no doubt there are much more accurate technical terms for what I'm trying to describe!!
Blas is correct btw.

Blas is said to rhyme with gloss.
Also forgot to mention that the second syllable of Caoimhe is more like -veh where I am. At least there definitely isn't a strong 'a' at the end as there is in names like Diana.

I'm in Glasgow and I know a few Caoimhe's and we say Kee-va
It's sometimes spelt this way too

I'm from Northern Ireland, it would be pronounced "key va"

I used to work with someone with this name

Nobody got it.

Awful name

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff I remember reading the thread years ago with the original Johnny McGrath. I wonder was he Irish? I imagine him to be a Belfast loyalist.
Some parallel universe has a thread on whether you pronounce the th at the end or if it's more McGraa.
Many men in Kerry speak beautiful Irish. My daughter was taught Irish by a native speaker. But other dialects aren't wrong. Just different.

Absolutely, all the Irish dialects are correct Irish. Lots of Irish people don't have much Irish though, so we tend to pronounce letters the English way instead of the Irish way. Often we don't even realise we're doing this.

OP, I should also have said that aoi ( like English ee) is pronounced towards the front of the mouth I think, so you get what's called a glide from the C to the aoi sound - and that's the w bit you hear in Caoimhe.

Keavy is definitely not right... Mina you I heard someone in Uk insisting that Sinead was pronounced Sh-nerd! They're poor child was walking around being called a nerd! 🤣

Lots of Irish people...well all in the Republic...have 14 years of school Irish. Unless they are exempt for some reason. So pronunciation of names shouldn't be a massive issue. Writing an essay or following the news might be beyond them but that's a whole other discussion.

Irish is taught poorly in schools overall @eggandonion. One of the problems is that often the Irish the teachers have isn't the best, you can be very lucky like your daughter was, or unlucky. If the teacher doesn't have all the sounds of the Irish language then it's unlikely students will pick them up and they're not formally taught as English phonics are. In primary schools most teachers aren't specialists in Irish. Gaelscoileanna are a different story of course, I'm talking about English medium schools. At second level the teachers do have a degree in Irish, but that's 8 years into the learning journey for the student.
Pronunciation is a huge issue unfortunately.

As primary teachers all have honours Irish in leaving cert I believe they can pronounce the names of pupis correctly. And classmates can pronounce each others names. Verbs etc. Are a whole different ball game.
Obviously this doesn't apply to teachers in Northern Ireland who haven't the benefit of compulsory Irish. Which may or may not be a good thing depending on ones political viewpoint.

I love this name.

I've told this story before, but once I had to call someone in from the waiting room at work, saw it written down and thinking I was clever said "Keeva?"

And the girl stood up and said "It's Caomi" (rhyming with Naomi)

I was gutted 😂

I'm sure they can say most names, but Caoimhe is a tricky one and people tend to default to the English sounds they know or how they have heard the name pronounced by others around them. I got an honour at LC and my Irish was very poor at that stage. Teachers will be better I hope, but there is variability among them.

Yeah! Dds friend and a child in my work both pronounced that way.

key vay ( vay rhyming with way.)

I have a Caoimhe.
I always loved it and knew any girl I had would be called it.
We're northern Irish in Scotland and say keevs when here but kweeva when home.
She loves her name and knew how to spell it and sound it from really tiny for anyone who wasn't sure.

I know a few, and the breakdown pronunciation-wise is evenly distributed.

I'd say KEE-veh. The last vowel sound isn't an A sound. It's more of a schwa.

Typically, the Kwee-veh pronunciation is Munster Irish and Kee-veh is Connacht/ Ulster Irish.

Neither is incorrect.