Girl's name

Niamh

“NEEV”
IPA: /ˈn̠ʲiəw/

'brightness, radiance, lustre'

NeveNeaveNeeve
Why it is said that way

The mh at the end is a v, so the whole name is one syllable: NEEV. It is not nee-am, and there is no h sound in it anywhere.

  • bh, mh → v — or w in the middle of a word

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The story behind the name

Niamh Chinn Óir, Niamh of the Golden Hair, rode out of the western sea on a white horse and carried Oisín away to Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth. He stayed three hundred years, thinking it three; when he came home and his foot touched Irish ground, he crumbled into an old man.

Famous people with this name

Irish people with an English Wikipedia article whose given name is recorded as Niamh on Wikidata; descriptions from Wikidata.

Meanings follow Ó Corráin & Maguire's Irish Names and Woulfe; pronunciations give the commonest Irish-English form. Know this name better — a dialect pronunciation, a family tradition? Tell us. · All Irish names A–Z