Nevaeh?!

I HATED this name when I first heard it. I mean, heaven spelt backwards? Thats a little much. But it is starting to grow on me! Putting aside everybodys negative comments, its growing popularity, and its weird backwards meaning, I think it is really pretty. Does ANYONE out there agree? Or really disagree? [name]Just[/name] wanna know what you think!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

Please just use [name]Heaven[/name] or something that means heaven if you like the meaning. Somehow dispite it’s popularity I have not yet met anyone named [name]Nevaeh[/name]. I still don’t quite get how it is pronounced. I think it will look HORRIBLY dated in a few years.

There are soooo many prettier, more established, less trendy names out there…what about [name]Nadia[/name], [name]Fiona[/name], [name]Evelyn[/name], [name]Sylvia[/name], [name]Nora[/name], [name]Liliana[/name], [name]Vivian[/name], [name]Genevieve[/name], [name]Virginia[/name], [name]Olivia[/name] (popular but NOT trendy, that’s the difference), [name]Jemima[/name], [name]Nevada[/name], [name]Ivy[/name], or [name]Matilda[/name]??? Please not [name]Nevaeh[/name]!
I know it has kind of an appealing sound, but in the end it is just a really trendy invented name that most of the parents who choose it will regret in a few years… :frowning:

hahahahahaha i think i have just ruined any reputation I may have had as a nameberryite! I suppose I really am the only one out there that thinks this name isn’t 100% terrible… not saying I’m gonna use it! I just think it has a nice sound :slight_smile:

[name]Hi[/name], Savvy!

I definitely see where you are coming from. Putting aside all that is bad about this name - a lot! - here are my thoughts:

[name]Nevaeh[/name] has a pleasing, feminine, yet strong sound. I compare it to [name]Olivia[/name], which has a soft sound bolstered by a strong, prominent V sound, anchoring the name. In my opinion, this balance makes for a pleasing, feminine melody. I also find [name]Sariah[/name] very similar to [name]Nevaeh[/name] in sound, syllables, and flow, though [name]Sariah[/name] is comparably softer than [name]Nevaeh[/name]. So, I definitely see the appeal in the way the name sounds.

What is the biggest issue with the name, for me? The way it looks! The way a name - or word - looks is just as important for me as how it sounds. I like [name]Charlotte[/name] because it looks clean, organized, and put together - yes, a name can look like that! I like [name]Anna[/name] because it looks simple, calm, and pretty. I prefer [name]Juliet[/name] to [name]Juliette[/name] because it looks polished, simple, and sophisticated - the extra letters clutter the name for me. [name]Nevaeh[/name], in contrast, looks like a mess of letters - it has no organization, no symmetry, no balance. This, to me, is more a problem than the fact that it is merely “heaven” spelled backwards…

Take care!

[name]Lemon[/name] :slight_smile:

I agree. [name]Neveah[/name]'s sound or meaning are not so much the issue for me as the spelling. For example, if it was spelled Nivea (yes, yes like the lotion)–just one leter different–I would probably like it.

[name]Neveah[/name]-bashing is one of most Nameberryite’s favorite things to do. And I’ll admit I’m not fond of it. But for me it’s the spelling and not the meaning.

I really wish I could take part in the [name]Nevaeh[/name] bashing! I guess it is just one of those guilty pleasure names!! You know, one of those names that goes against everything you’re for? Others for me are [name]Conrad[/name], [name]Axel[/name], [name]Ryder[/name], [name]North[/name], and [name]Shiloh[/name]. None of which I feel quite as guilty about as I do with [name]Nevaeh[/name]. Hey- might as well lay all my cards on the table right?!

I loved [name]Lemon[/name]'s impressive essay on the subject… especially her description of liking names to look clean, polished, and organized! I’m another who doesn’t care for [name]Nevaeh[/name], BUT…

BostonSavvy, I am sure your reputation is not ruined. I certainly do not think less of you for liking the “N” name, really! We don’t all like the same names. PLEASE don’t feel badly! Your honesty and openness are wonderful!

Sure! I like some very non-Nameberry names too. It makes us all different. If we all liked the same names, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about. (Or, at least, our interesting forums would be very, very bland. “I like this one” “Me too!” “Me too!”) I secretly like the name [name]Haley[/name]–it was the name of a childhood toy.

Yeah, I think it’s the spelling that makes it just so… cheesy. I’m not too fond of the sound, but I can see that other people could find it appealing if it was spelled differently.

I agree with others that the spelling really just destroys it for me. I agree that the sound is rather pleasant, but it also really bothers me that it’s not really pronounced like it is spelled.

What got me thinking about this name recently is that Naevia was included on the TV blog from a couple days ago. It is apparently from the new Starz show Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I saw the name and thought that it’s not my style, but I would never feel the same negative feelings towards Naevia that I do towards [name]Neveah[/name] even though they are awfully similar.

So, I guess my reaction is that the sound of the name is not awful, but I dislike everything else about the name.

[name]How[/name] about we spell it as Nevaya? Looks better imo.

Here is something that is spelt that way, and it is very beautiful, take a look.

Wedding Dresses & Bridal Gowns | Maggie Sottero. It is supposed to show a dress named Nevaya but when I checked I got all of the styles. Not to worry all of them are beautiful.

[name]Just[/name] recently, I think the name appeared on ‘The Mentalist’. I didn’t realize it was pronounced as [name]Nuh[/name]-viah (like [name]Mariah[/name])… I don’t think I consciously thought of its pronunciation before…

I think I would have thought it an ACCEPTABLE name, IF NOT for the fact that it was [name]Heaven[/name] spelt backwards. If it was [name]Neviah[/name] perhaps… something completely not related to heaven.

I think everything that has to be said about [name]Nevaeh[/name] has already been said, but I do think it was very brave of you to admit your liking for it, and as other posters have mentioned we probably all have our secret name crushes. It might be a fun idea to start a confessions thread about the “bad names” we secretly like, and let everyone come out of the closet . . .

I was thinking of this name in terms of those who have already posted saying that it just doesn’t make sense visually. I have mixed feelings about it. A lot of people are in favor of particularly Irish names that don’t make any sense in English. There is a part of that that is wonderful, that this is a language somewhere that makes any sense, but the letters look pretty jumbled to me sometimes, and are not in any way intuitive for a person who only speaks English. [name]Just[/name] felt like pointing that out. This is a way that names can be completely established and yet we are unwilling to anglicize them only to retain their spelling in a country where they would not make any sense. For authenticity’s sake, which I don’t think is a really great reason to keep an unintuitive spelling of a name.

Similarly, some names from other cultures are also somewhat non-intuitive in English, and still pass on the fact that they have become common or recognizable enough to pronounce them as they are in some other country, if we are to be “correct.” ch pronounce sh is not intuitive. ci pronounce ch or sh is not intuitive. e pronounced ay is not exactly intuitive. We just become used to imports and adapt our expectations to the original language (sometimes they vary according to local preference, but sometimes we count the foreign pronunciation as more correct or preferentially exotic than the local interpretation - e.g. [name]CarolINE[/name]-a vs. [name]CarolEENa[/name], or HeLAYna vs. [name]HELen[/name]-a. [name]Heaven[/name] forfend we spell something with a -lyn to distinguish it from the phonetic -[name]LINE[/name], people should just know instead of resorting to a tacky “invented” spelling.

Anyway, I don’t really like [name]Nevaeh[/name]. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pronouncing it [name]Nev[/name]-ay-ah. [name]Neveah[/name] seems a little closer to that pronunciation, but I’m not concerned with it, although I think this is the only valid alternate spelling in use. [name]Nev[/name]-a-eh. [name]How[/name] would you pronounce that? I think it appeals to a lot of people just by the sound of it. It’s weird that being “heaven spelled backwards” is of high importance, because otherwise it loses its meaning, right? A lot of names are taken to have no correct spelling and anything goes, except for [name]Nevaeh[/name], because without its spelling, it is really just a pile of letters.

It has a sound quality that is really appealing. It has a distinct invention about it, that I think in a hundred years, will be really historically cemented in her descendants. When you look into your own family tree, I’m not sure you frown on names which were invented or altered in some way, that must have had significance to someone when they chose it. It becomes quaint and an historical oddity in an endearing way. We are so quick to point out what is wrong with everything today. I guess I can agree to the point that there is nothing linguistically “correct” for [name]Nevaeh[/name], it is an anagram rather than following any language rules, and it’s meaning is therefore, not of some root word, but of the root of its anagram, [name]Heaven[/name]. If I had to guess, I think some of the appeal of [name]Nevaeh[/name] is actually that (ae) look to it, that if someone wanted to name their daughter [name]Kaylee[/name], they might spell it [name]Kae[/name]- to be unique. This “anything goes” spelling treatment is already included in [name]Nevaeh[/name]. A lot of times when people trick out the spelling in a name they’ve heard, they don’t know much about language construction and will just go to town with combinations of letters they have seen in other words, Latin mixed with Greek, mixed with Gaelic, just a big mush anyway. I think [name]Nevaeh[/name] is not so totally bad if it stays fairly recognizable as a reversal of [name]Heaven[/name]. It goes a lot worse when people start playing with it, and I think for the most part, people leave it alone so it retains its only meaning. I think that is significant enough.

I don’t love the name, but I think we have to evolve - names that we consider “real” have a potential and a right to change with the times. What seems shallow is merely modern. So-called established names must have seemed pretty weird and unusable to some parts of the population at the time they were introduced - trendy even, and from our perspective, get some gloss of respectability from wide use a couple generations ago, a sense of permanence and interest because we are not able to be there at the time and say, well, this is just weird and unseemly, it makes no sense, what a linguistic travesty, etc. Instead, we think they are awesome and rare examples of what they did in olden times, what a “real” name could be when everyone else was [name]Mary[/name] and [name]Catherine[/name] and [name]John[/name] and [name]Thomas[/name]. [name]How[/name] novel to them seems established to us, so goes [name]Nevaeh[/name], in my opinion.

Anyway, for an alternative:

I know a little girl named Novia, which I believe means “bride” in Spanish. It’s a little weird, because the girl is Chinese, and her parents, especially her mother, know very little English, so I don’t know how they heard of this name - I have not even thought of it as a name until I met them. However, it is really cute and unique. NO-vee-ah. It hits a lot of the elements of the sound of [name]Nevaeh[/name] without a lot of the backlash.

I had no idea until this threat that I was pronouncing the name incorrectly in my head. I’ve never heard it spoken and assumed it was neh-VAY-uh and didn’t understand all of the hate.

Now, I get it.

I’ve never heard of it pronounced like [name]Mariah[/name]. I’ve always been told it was [name]Nuh[/name]-VAY-uh… though to me it looks like [name]Nuh[/name]-vayh.

I like the suggestion of the Nivea spelling, that’s actually quite pretty. My biggest problem with [name]Nevaeh[/name] is the spelling, it just looks a mess to me!

P.S. I secretly love [name]Haley[/name] too, along with most names with the A sound. :slight_smile: