Girl's name
Niamh
“NEEV”
IPA: /ˈn̠ʲiəw/
'brightness, radiance, lustre'
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
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.
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