Contribute your knowledge to the name Aoife

Comments and insights on the name Aoife

Aoife is a very popular name in Northern Ireland.

When ever i see this name I always think it's pronounced 'ay-oh-fee'.
I do think aofie is a pretty name pronounced ee-fa as well

Personal experiences with the name Aoife

Of all the real Irish names, this is one of the worst to use for a North American kid - when my sister visits from Ireland she is driven distracted by the butchering her name gets!

Really? I think it would be harder to be called Caoimhe.

We live in North America and named our daughter Aoife. While it is difficult for people here to pronounce, we hear so often that it is a beautiful name, that we are reassured that it was the right choice for our beautiful daughter. The Irish name, Siobhan, was just as foreign to people in the 1980s, but is now so well known that the pronunciation is not much of a problem anymore.

We do get some negative comments such as one brilliant guy who asked us if we thought we were better than everyone else and were just trying to be 'you-nique' (yes, all that wrapped up in a child's name!). We also get the people who say 'well, I would never inflict that on my kid!' And then there are the people who complain about it not being phonetic to English, but many other names that are not phonetic to English now function perfectly well in this language, such as Chloe and Phoebe.

Nicknames for Aoife

Aoifie (EE-fie)

Meanings and history of the name Aoife

From the Gaelic word aoibh meaning beauty'.

Famous real-life people named Aoife

Aoife Curley- many time Irish Dancing World Championship winner

Aoife in song, story & screen

The Name Aoife has a number of stories attached to it - both historical and mythological.

In Irish mythology she was a female warrior and the wife of the great hero Cu Chulainn.

Historically, Aoife was the daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, provincial king of Leinster, in the 12th century. When MacMurrough sought aid from the Normans in a feud, he offered Aoife's hand in marriage to Richard de Clare (aka, Strongbow). De Clare is often credited/blamed as the first Norman "invader" of Ireland.

Another Aoife was the jealous stepmother in the mythological tale, "The Children of Lir", who turned her 3 step-children into swans and cursed them to spend 300 years on each of 3 Irish lakes.

N.B. Despite the (seeming, to the Anglo ear) similarity in pronunciation, Aoife is NOT related to either "Eva" or "Ava".