Maebh or Méabh

[name_m]Hi[/name_m] all, requesting advice. We love the name [name_f]Maebh[/name_f]/Méabh but want advice on which is the “correct” way of spelling it? [name_m]Can[/name_m] anyone help us? Thank you :pray:t2:

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I would consider where you live, likely challenges with pronunciation, characters required to spell the name, and any significance behind one or the other spelling.

I’m bringing this up because we’ve dealt with people having pronunciation challenges with my daughter’s name since she was born. Her name is [name_f]Etta[/name_f] and many people (even family!) insist on pronouncing her name as “[name_f]Edda[/name_f]“, which drives me crazy. It isn’t all that difficult to enunciate the “tt”, but for whatever reason people roll the t sound. It would drive me even more crazy if they also misspelled it constantly.
I suggest you keep the spelling simple! I would not include the special characters.

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I believe [name_f]Meabh[/name_f] is the original Gaelic spelling of [name_f]Maeve[/name_f], no? Depending on where you live, spelling it [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] might save you a lot of headaches in the future.

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[name_f]Welcome[/name_f], @VictoriainArden :wave:

Méabh is a lovely name!

:point_up: This is the Irish way of spelling it, although there are variants like Medb (the older Gaelic spelling) and [name_f]Meadhbh[/name_f] (also a legitimate spelling, but less common in [name_f]Ireland[/name_f] and more confusing outside it!)

I haven’t seen [name_f]Maebh[/name_f], although [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is the usual Anglicized form.

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Thank you, we want to keep the Irish way of spelling it. She is quite the surprise for us and it comes just after we scattered my fathers ashes in [name_m]Mayo[/name_m] of the coast. His side of the family is Irish and we liked the idea of giving her the the name for this reason :yellow_heart:

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Oh what a lovely idea, I’m so sorry for your loss :green_heart:

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Méabh looks best to me ot even [name_f]Meabh[/name_f]

The Irish way of spelling [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is [name_f]Meabh[/name_f].

What you have added to the other version is what is known as a ‘fada’. Méabh in this case uses the fada over the e.

Despite what it says, unless you live in [name_f]Ireland[/name_f], you’d only be using it this way for decorative purposes.

The fada is to sound it out for certain regions within [name_f]Ireland[/name_f]. Please see below link for some background, I hope it helps.

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I’m sorry for your loss! [name_f]Meabh[/name_f] is such a beautiful name, and I love the sweet meaning behind choosing it.

The foda is absolutely not decorative. It effectively creates a different letter in the alphabet.

I realise this is an old thread, but I’ve only just come across it. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband and I have been having the same discussion about what to name our daughter and [name_f]Méabh[/name_f] is on the shortlist. I am Scottish and he is [name_u]Irish[/name_u] (and a fluent speaker). So in case this helps anyone else:

[name_f]Méabh[/name_f] with an e foda is the correct spelling of the name, without a foda it means ‘hen’. If you don’t want the Foda then it’s [name_f]Meadhbh[/name_f], also correct.

[name_f]Medb[/name_f] is the old [name_u]Irish[/name_u] spelling, no foda. They would actually have had dots over the d and b as they didn’t have an H back then, but they are not used anymore.

[name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is the [name_f]English[/name_f] spelling.

The foda is super important. Take Órla for example. It’s not on our shortlist as I don’t trust people not to drop it. With the foda it means [name_u]Golden[/name_u] princess, not to be confused with [name_f]Orla[/name_f], which means vomit…

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