Maeve or Méabh - I am in Ireland

[pontipinemum]

Really jumping the gun here but I am thinking if I have a DD I really like Méabh.

But would you spell it Maeve or Méabh? I have Irish parents, born in UK raised there until teens but live in Ireland now. Only saying that to justify why I have no Irish!

Our DS is Pádraig so going with another Irish name would be following suit. I just think my Irish family/ friends will spell it wrong constantly. That doesn't worry me at all.

I absolutely love Fionnuala but it's a big no from DH

Méabh.

What about Medb for properly old school vibes

In your situation I would go for Méabh, I think it goes really nicely with Pádraig too

Méabh whether in Ireland or the UK. People can learn to pronounce a name. It's not that hard. 🙂

It is a beautiful name I think. Also very cool/ strong interesting IMO

I'd definitely go for Méabh. I know 2 Medbs though and it is a cool spelling.

@CasuirDubh I have very very very basic Irish that sp just isn't clicking with me. Méabh is a legit Irish spelling tho is it? I was so paranoid we got Pádraig correct. There a few wrong sp/ fada's in my family 😳

In your position, I would absolutely go with whichever you prefer -- my own preference would be for Méabh. (Though I secretly hanker for Medb, like a PP...)

@pontipinemum it's the original spelling. There would have been a h after both the d and b but Irish didn't have the letter h (it was represented by a dot over the letter preceding it).

I've seen Méabh or Méadhbh as modern spellings so I'm sure Méabh is fine.

Méabh is lovely, much nicer than Maeve I think, it seems to have taken over as the main spelling of the name here in Ireland

I like the look of Méabh better. Maeve is cute too. I also like Medb, which someone suggested, and I do like Meadhbh, but maybe that's confusing to many people. I grew up with one so it works for me.

I love the name any way you care to spell it.

I'm not sure about these days but it was very popular 20 years ago - there were three of them in DS's class, all with different spellings.

Méabh is lovely, I think it looks much softer than Maeve.
Goes great with Pádraig too!

Having your name spelt wrong is just part and parcel of having an Irish name, even in Ireland. My DS has one of those names that can be spelt several different ways and he's very proud of it. When asked his name he proudly shares which version it is and loves when he meets another one and they agree their spelling is the best! So unless you have a very international family I wouldn't worry about it. I love Medb, but she will be spelling it a lot, but honestly even with Méabh she'll be always reminding people about the fada.

Méabh is beautiful!

I love Pádraig & Fionnuala 💚 they’re both on my list of baby names!

My name isn't Irish but there are a few ways to 'correctly' spell it. No one ever gets it right but I really don't mind I only bother correcting people if it matters (forms etc)

@GallowwayGirl88 I said it to DH last night about Méabh and he said he thought I loved Fionnuala I said I did but that he always said no, he said he is winding me up so looks like it could be on the cards. Like talk about getting ahead of myself tho, we're only TTC!!

I don't know how popular it is in Ireland but Maeve (that spelling) is having a big moment in E&W. It jumped about 400 places in the three years from 2018-21, which is very unusual. Méabh is lovely.

Maeve is one of those eternally popular names in Ireland. An Irish Maeve could be 6 or she could be 60.

I was going to say Medb but pipped to the post.

I like Méabh.

Fionnuala is great imo.

Properly granny chic.

Marvel is a lovely name.

Maeve not Marvel, bloody autocorrect.

As someone who lives abroad and has a name which is normal in my own country but difficult to spell and pronounce here, I would go with Maeve.

My background is like yours and I have a Gaelic name too. A long one. Nobody can pronounce it, even though most of the people where I come from have Irish heritage themselves.
It seems a shame to Anglicise things though, lots of Gaelic names, including Meabh (using speech to text - it cannot cope with fadas!), are lovely. Just not mine!