My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Baby names

Is Aoibhe a step too far in the UK?

260 replies

mika2 · 09/05/2013 23:09

I'm Irish, living in the UK and due DD1 in 4 mths. I really want to give the baby an irish name - DH has reluctantly agreed - and had come up with an extensive list of boys names i liked (and was convinced it was a boy!) but now i know it's a girl I'm still struggling. Not helped by the fact that a lot of them (Ciara, Tara, Niamh, Beibhinn, Saoirse, Siun) have already been taken by my very extended family. At the moment this is the best we can come up with;

Clodagh (klo-da) - but DH is insisting on nn chloe (which defeats the purpose of giving the baby an Irish name IMO)
Aoife (ee-fa) - pretty, but v v common in ireland and getting more so here?
Caoimhe (quee-va) - I love, but DH isn't so keen
Aoibhe (eva) - alternative to aoife, but a bit more "out there" than the others as even Irish ppl seem v confused on how to pronounce. And with such an obvious english alternative, can see DH/DD giving up and spelling it Eva eventually

Thoughts on the above for a baby growing up in the uk? And any other suggesions gratefully received!

OP posts:
Report
NMM · 09/05/2013 23:14

Órla?
Emer (not the 'correct' Eimear spelling I know, but pronounceable!)

Report
katkoala · 09/05/2013 23:18

we love Nuala, but having a ds Grin

Report
amonthefence · 09/05/2013 23:19

I know several Irish friends called Aine. (On-ya)

Report
Movingtimes · 09/05/2013 23:19

Dervla?
I also like Orla.
I have an Aoife and we never meet any others until we go to Ireland where we are tripping over bucket loads of them. She does get a lot of people spelling her name wrong or not knowing how to pronounce it, but once they know they know. I would go with the name you like best and not bother to worry about what other folk make of it.

Report
Beehatch · 09/05/2013 23:21

All Irish names, even with trad spelling seem to be getting more common here in SE England. In our nursery pretty much all the names you have listed are on the current rolls, even Caoimhe.

Report
GwendolineMaryLacey · 09/05/2013 23:21

I think that if you want to give an Irish name, then go the whole hog and give one that has a specific pronunciation rather than Aoibhe which, as you say, lazy sods will try to spell Eva. At least if you use Caoimhe you know they're going to have to make an attempt to spell it correctly, there's no easy get out.

All of them are lovely, I do like Eimear as suggested by NMM though :)

Report
Irishmammybread · 09/05/2013 23:22

Catriona (though the sneaky silent o catches everyone out!)
Alanna
I really like Caoimhe too.

Report
GwendolineMaryLacey · 09/05/2013 23:22

Dervla has issues of its own although it's a gorgeous name (Dearbhla, Deirbhile anyone?)

Report
tethersend · 09/05/2013 23:22

Caoimhe is lovely.

Report
AThingInYourLife · 09/05/2013 23:24

Aoife is soooo much nicer than Aoibhe.

Why call a child Eva but make them spell it Aoibhe?

You could try Aoibheal :o

Apparently this is an old name that has inexplicably fallen out if favour Wink

Report
onedev · 09/05/2013 23:27

I love all of your suggestions except Clodagh & I also love Nuala (& Fionnuala.)

I don't think Aoibhe is too out there at all (although I'm from NI, so all your names sound normal to me). Eva is vv popular around here, living in England (as is Eve, Evie etc) so Aoibhe would be great as its that bit different!

Report
onedev · 09/05/2013 23:28

Should add, that bit different & also reflects your heritage Smile

Report
intheshed · 09/05/2013 23:29

I once knew a girl called Fionnula, which I thought was lovely.

Or how about Aisling?

Report
AThingInYourLife · 09/05/2013 23:33

Róise?

Caoilfhinn?

Report
AThingInYourLife · 09/05/2013 23:35

Actually maybe not for a child in England.

Maeve?

Sadhbh? (tricky spelling, but v easy to say)

Report
AThingInYourLife · 09/05/2013 23:36

OK, just two more

Muirne

Líadan

Report
threepiecesuite · 09/05/2013 23:39

Roisin?

Report
dontblameme · 09/05/2013 23:43

Alba?

Report
CointreauVersial · 09/05/2013 23:56

I'm not Irish, but DH is, so we wrestled with this exact dilemma.

I think there are some Irish names which the average Brit may have encountered and can probably cope with (Niamh, Siobhan, Orla etc).

Then there are some which are more tricky (my friend has a Cliodhna.....at least, I think that's how it's spelled...). You will always be struggling with a name like that. Pretty names, but make sure that spelling/sounding out DD's name for the next 20 years won't drive you nuts.

We ended up with a Sorcha and an Erin (not Irish, but means Ireland....and no-one ever asks us how to spell it Grin ).

Report
K8Middleton · 10/05/2013 00:05

Caitlin (pronounced Cat-lin) is lovely though I expect lots of people will call her Kate-lin.

Report
ALittleBitOfMagic · 10/05/2013 00:13

Oooooh I love beibhinn !! (sorry no help)

Siobhan
Sinead
Catriona
Maebh

Report
Cookethenook · 10/05/2013 07:38

As a person with a non-phonetic, difficultly spelt name, I would never use a spelling like that dor my child's name when there is an alternate, easier spelling available. Sorry. I just spend half my life spelling my name for people and them going 'oooh, that's unusual!', it drives me nuts!

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

forgetmenots · 10/05/2013 08:38

Hahaha Cooke I've got a common as muck name that has a few variant spellings, everyone knows how to do them but I always have to spell it out - has meant I'm so much more likely to support unusual hard-to-spell names, at least there's a point then :)

Report
Stokes · 10/05/2013 18:11

I went to school with a girl called Aoibhe who pronounced it Aoife. Used to drive the teachers crazy and does the same to me now. Anyway, that's beside the point!

Aoibhe is nice, I would've thought it would be more like Eev-uh than Eev-a, but it's a lovely name. There's also Aoibh and Éabha in a similar vein.

My favourite on your list Clodagh, although I see what you mean re Chloe. What about Bronagh? It's a lovely sounding name, but would the meaning put you off?

Report
thegreylady · 10/05/2013 18:23

Ffion is sweet too and I think Bridget is very underused these days-nn Bridie.Also there are lots of Katherines and Caitlins but not many Kathleens.
I taught Irish twins in the 70's and their names were Grainne [?] and Emerald. Maeve is pretty too.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.