Should I call my daughter Aoibhín in England?

[lovebeingmuma]

Will my daughter hate me for calling her a name no one can pronounce?

Having to constantly spell / correct your name is tedious, frankly I’m fed up of having to do it myself so I wouldn’t go for something where this is an obvious issue.

Lovely name though, and maybe Irish spellings will become more commonplace over time, but just be aware that it less straightforward than other choices and creates unnecessary issues if you live outside Ireland.

Just regional pronunciations apply 😊

I would assume ee-vin as well though I know firsthand there is variation within Ireland on pronunciations.. We know an Aoibhinn locally, she’s always been known by a nickname instead.

My kids have Irish names though and people cope fine.

Ciarán looks like Kiar-ran to me. Is it the Irish spelling of Kieran? Or is Kieran the English spelling of Ciarán?

Ok. I have to say, it’s not boding well for English speakers to pronounce a name that the Irish themselves can’t agree on, regional pronunciations or otherwise.

Sometimes there are differences in pronunciations between regions (eg Caoimhe can be Kweeva or Keeva) but not in this case.

Aoi is always “ee”, wherever you are from in Ireland. OP is unfortunately just pronouncing it incorrectly.

I was born in England, that means I’m English. Are there any heritages that wouldn’t be ‘wonderful’ ffs? It could be the best place on earth for all I care, and I say this respectfully, I’ve no connection to the place other than my parents were born there, I’ve no intention of embracing Scottish culture or heritage, I’ll leave that to the Scots.

It’s Niamh though. Naoimh is not the correct spelling.

Go for it. Some lf the replies on thos thread suggest it's acceptable to mispronounce Irish names in England but not names from other origins. It's a beautiful name & people will have to learn. You wouldn't worry about a Welsh name or panic if you were moving here with a child with a Spanish name etc. And please use the Irish version. We used an English version of an Irish name & wish it was the genuine one.

I’ve lived in a couple of counties in Leinster and only ever heard it with the A sound not E.

This! If you love the name & are Irish, then go for it!

It’s a common mistake. A mistake is not the same thing as an alternative pronunciation or a regional dialect.

As you have Irish heritage and live in London I’d say it would be ok.

@Whoknowswherethewindsblow , Kieran is the English spelling of Ciarán.
It's dated and a bit downmarket but Ciarán isn't.

I don't understand why people think that non Irish people should understand how to pronounce Irish names. They are indecipherable to many, many people. Teachers may say they quickly learn everyone's names, but that's a highly educated group. My daughters have some special needs and wouldn't have a clue. Imo giving names like this to a child born in England and going to live here is setting her up for a life time of misspellings, mispronunciation, frustration. Important people in her life will get it wrong, never mind coffee shop employees, and it will be hurtful. And it offers so many opportunities to also hurt people like my daughters who will never in a million years master it.

I have a name that nobody can pronounce or spell and it's so irritating that I shorten it to something phonetic and easy for people. I wish my parents had thought about this, as it is super frustrating. When I had my own children I deliberately gave them plain simple names so they wouldn't have to put up with constantly correcting people all day long at work. I also love the fact that I can buy things for my children with their name printed on it instead of having to get it engraved. As a child I could. Never find anything in a gift shop with my name.

Me too. It’s pretty.

It would literally be a life of mispronunciation and people not being able to spell it.

How about Aoibhin but have her known as Aiveen? I think a lot of schools now have both the formal name and the "known as" names in the register. He schoolfriends won't need to write it down.

When she's older she can just use Aoibhin and people can just be told how to pronounce her name.

I know someone from Ireland whose name is quite familiar in English. Here she used an English spelling: now she's back working in Ireland she uses the Irish spelling. I don't know how it appears on formal documents.

I have one name on my birth certificate and a shortened version of it which I'm known by. At work and on my bank account I use the shortened name - I'm only known by the long one in the public sector, eg to the NHS and HMRC. When your DD is older she can choose which she likes to use. .

Grow up. I’m embarrassed for you.

She won't thank you. I should know, my name is Gearóidín. Even just pissing about on the keyboard to get the fadas is a pain in the arse, let alone explaining it to others every single bloody time.

Yes, there are different dialects of Irish and sometimes names are pronounced differently depending on dialect.
Not in this case however.

Aoibh is pronounced Eve in all dialects of Irish.

I guess we all experience things differently. I grew up in the 70s/80s in England with a similarly unusual Irish name and, for me, it just wasn’t a big deal if people got it wrong. It wasn’t intentional on their part and most people were interested to learn if you were polite in explaining.

We wouldn’t claim you anyway.

It’s bizarre that someone would be so hostile to their own ethnicity.

I am a fluent Irish speaker, live outside of Ireland, and have three children with Irish names.

You are mispronouncing this name.
It is, definitively, Ee Veen.

The Ee sound is identical to that of your other daughter Aoife. This is unsurprising as they both derive from the same word, aoibh (pronounced "eve") meaning beautiful.

This would be like having two girls and calling them Paula and Pauline.

It's a lovely name and it's not difficult for a non-Irish-speaker to enunciate, but the above responses show that it is difficult to read/ spell/ correctly guess.

The fada will sadly be abandoned in most systems.

But the real reason not to use it is that it is very VERY close to the other (lovely) name you already chose.