Untitled

[merlin3690]

Can anyone advise me... My husband and I want to give our baby an Irish name as his family are from Ireland and saw Aithne in a baby name book, which we at first thought was pronounced 'Ayth-nie'. We fell in love with this name and have agreed on Niamh Aithne. On looking on various sites it seems this name in pronounced En-Yah which although is nice, we preferred the Aith-nie version. It is supposed to mean 'Little Fire'.

Can anyone advise me on this? Is Aithnie, pronounced as we thought even a real name?

Thanks

Emma

As far as I know, Aithne is just a variant spelling of Eithne which is pronouced Enya.

I really don't think you should pronouce it Ayth-nie - that's definitly wrong!

Can you advise me of the pronunication of:

aobha

aoibhe

aoibhne

aibhne

aoife - can this be either ay-fa or ee-fa?

I would pronouce them:

aobha - Avah

aoibhe - Ee-vuh

aoibhne - Ay-v-na

aibhne - Av-nee

aoife - Ee-fa not Ay-fa

I could be wrong? Any Irish experts out there?

I know a (very Irish) Eithne who pronounces her name Eth-na (soft 'th' sound).

aobha - Avah

aoibhe - Ee-vuh

aoibhne - Ay-v-na - Would this be Eve-na as it is Aoi which seems to follow the Ee sound?

aibhne - Av-nee

aoife - Ee-fa not Ay-fa

Also what about Aobhne? Would this be Ay-v-nee?

Please think very carefully about giving your baby a hard to pronounce Irish name in England...

I know what you are saying but my husband is keen to have Irish names and this would be a middle name with Niamh being the first name.

What is your name? Are you from Ireland? Can you help me with these pronunciations?

All my Irish relatives are calling their babies things like Lara, Zack and Molly! Surely if you go for an Irish first name you don't need to go for a hard to spell middle name as well.

How do you pronounce the boys name Tiege? It was in a book I read recently, is it Teeg as I said in my head?

I've got Irish parents, merlin, but haven't got a clue how to pronounce most of those names tbh - mine seems quite harmless in comparison...: Oonagh

The -gh is pretty tame PuppyMonkey. I had friends at school who was called 'Groin' by new teachers. Any guesses?

I know what you mean combustible, but you would be amazed at how many people are totally confounded by the double O and the gh. I would say I have to explain my name roughly five or six times a week on average. If they make a cock up of Oonagh, imagine what they would do with something more difficult!

Groin - have no idea! Do tell...

The one that is spelt like Groinne (or similar hmm)? No idea how to pronounce it though.

Grainne - had a friend at uni called this. Pronounced ''grornya''ish.

Gráinne ?(Gronya). I quite like it but maybe it doesn?t translate well....

Re Aoibhne ? I asked DH who?s Irish, he pronounces it Ay-va-nuh. With a long a in the middle, a bit like Yvonne with an 'a' on the end. I'm rubbish at phonetics lol.

Yup DesperateHousewifeToo and Sesi. Nice name but I bet she still has people pronouncing it oddly.

Oh yes, she used to get all sorts of attempts

Was just letting suwoo know how tis spelt.

Not irish, but how about xanthe (zanthee)?