Irish Names

Jake Lambert @LittleLostLad

The spelling of Irish names is my pet piamh

21 comments

Caoimh - kweeva

Siobhán - Shivawn

Sinead - Shin-ade

Níamh - Neev

Grainne - Grawn-ya

Sorcha - Surka

Bláthnaid - Blawnid

Clíodnadh - Clee-ona

Órlaith - Oar-la

Ciara - Kee-ra

All these names make sense when one understands Irish grammar and pronunciations, but I can absolutely see how people elsewhere would struggle with these.
- I wonder if its an accent thing but I've allways heard Niamh as "Nee-uv" and not "Neev" and I know quite a few Niamhs.
  
  Nee-uv is correct. The 'i' carries the stress, as indicated by the accent, so the 'a' turns into an unstressed vowel /ə/.
  
  To anyone else who has studied Irish, this is purposely a simplification.
- Oh... I always though Siobhan was really pretty, but it turns out I was just pronouncing it wrong.
- Thanks for sharing this! Found a few others as I was looking up my family members names:
  
  Kevin - Caoimhín Maeve - Meadhbh
Somebody please tell me how that's pronounced... Please... I beg of you.
- Play on the name Niamh, pronounced Neeve
  
  Damn I thought english was bad. How do you get neeve from niamh?
- I imagine it is similar to peeve
- Neeve in the north/east of Ireland, Nee-uv in the south/west where I'm from, making this meme even more annoying.
- This comment said:
  
  Somebody please tell me how that's pronounced... Please... I beg of you.
Say it ain't Siobhan
Tell that to Aoife
I'll submit Scáthatch as the one I was most relieved to learn the correct pronunciation of.

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