I fell in love with the name Aibhín.
What I know so far:
- it is Irish
- it appears in a poem named “A Kite for Aibhín” by Seamus Heaney, released 2010.
- it is supposed to be pronounced AY-veen
- there is a professor at a famous Irish university named Aibhín
What I read (but don’t have a reliable source):
- it was popular in Ireland (or at least used quite a bit) before the 20th century.
I was wondering if it was related to Aoibheann but that is correctly pronounced EE-ven so it sounds quite different. Aoibhinn is EE-ven too and Aoibhín is EE-veen.
Now I am sort of wondering, if people who are knowledgable of the Irish language simply used this as a name to spell AY-veen out somehow? I know that AY-veen is a common mispronunciation of Aoibheann so possibly someone just liked the sound but wanted a correct way to spell it so picked Aibhín?
But that doesn’t explain why it was apparently popular before the 20th century and the professor on the website seems to pre-date the Aoibheann popularity jump. She seems to be between 50-60 years old.
Does anyone have any idea?
Recognizing that I am not Irish nor extremely well-versed on Irish pronunciation, here is what I found…
Eibhlín, an Irish form of [name_f]Aveline[/name_f], apparently has multiple accepted pronunciations – both “ehv” and “ayv” as the beginning sound (I can’t find recordings for Eibhlín but the similar Éibhear has recordings by native Irish speakers on Forvo where they pronounce the matching first syllable differently). Aibhlinn is apparently an alternate spelling/another variation of Eibhlín, and the similar Aibhilín is reported to be the medieval spelling of the name. Is it possible Aibhín is derived from Aibhilín or Aibhlinn? Especially since it’s apparently valid to pronounce it with “ehv” or “ayv” at the start.
Abhainn is also the Irish word for river. It may be possible it was derived from that somehow, though from what I can find abhainn is pronounced more like “ahvin” rather than “ay-veen”
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Thank you! This might be the case. In another forum someone suggested that it might come from [name_m]Aodh[/name_m]. But I am not sure about this either.
It is just odd to me that someone claimed it was used quite a bit prior to the 20th century but I can hardly find anything on it. With Aodhnait etc. there are at least plenty of sources.
The Irish statistics only list 3 births + and only from 1964 onwards. So if it was used once or twice or before 1964 I wouldn’t be able to see it.
The first time it appears is in 1992.
Aiveen appears in 1971 for the first time. But I think this Aiveen has something to do with the mispronunciation of [name_u]Aoibheann[/name_u] as AY-veen as [name_u]Aoibheann[/name_u] starts charting in 1971 as well. So my guess is that there was a famous [name_u]Aoibheann[/name_u] around at the time who pronounced her name incorrectly as Aiveen.
The correct pronunciation of [name_u]Aoibheann[/name_u] (EE-ven) charts earlier (anglicized) as [name_f]Eavan[/name_f] as early as 1969. I know that in [name_u]Ireland[/name_u] anglicizations were more common in the past than they are now (Aideen also placed higher than Éadaoin for many years, for example).
[name_f]Aveen[/name_f] is the earliest version that charts (5 years prior to [name_u]Aoibheann[/name_u] or Aiveen) so maybe [name_f]Aveen[/name_f] was used for Aibhín previously?
Sorry this is probably confusing haha
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Bumping this because I’m wondering if anyone has more ideas 