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Does my baby's name actually exist? Anywhere?
Hi all,First i need to do some explaining before I get around to my question. I am English, I live in Ireland, I wanted to give my daughter a different name but I was very taken with Niamh. This spelling is everywhere so somebody suggested several different spellings, the one I chose was Neabhae. I was told this was the very old irish way of spelling it.Is this correct or does my daughter have a makey-upy name?. She is no 1 year old and we are getting quite disstressed about it. Any help would be great.Thanks.
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I don't know, but the people on this board seem to know a fair bit about Old Irish:
http://www.daltai.com/discus/messages/board-topics.html
so you might ask there.
Agree with Solunastra though that if it's distressing you, you might be better changing it to Niamh. :)
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I actually like that spelling - its unusual and interesting but I have never met anyone with that spelling. My name is quite unusual too, I'm called Morwenna (pronounced: More-WEN-ah) and my sisters name is Cleodie (Pronounced: cloudy)
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I just Googled it and got zero results with that spelling. I don't have a great deal of knowledge about Irish/Gaelic spellings or etymology, but practicality (by way of Google) says it's an unheard-of name. Usually if you Google an obscure name, you'll get genealogy records. I'd say if you're distressed that you may have given your daughter a made-up spelling, change it to Niamh. Whether her name is spelled Neabhae or Niamh, it's pronounced the same, right? So I'd say change it to the spelling that people are familiar with, that you know is etymologically sound. It'll give you peace of mind and save your daughter the trouble of having her name mispronounced and spelled wrong for her whole life.
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