How to Pronounce Irish Girl Names: Aoife, Caoimhe, Fiadh, Róisín

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So you’ve a new workmate called Caoimhe, or you’ve found a Clíodhna on your granny’s birth cert, and you’re sitting there thinking, how on earth do I say that? Don’t worry, you are not the first person to Google it! Even in Ireland people argue over a few of these, so you are in good company. The spelling is no help because Irish uses the same letters as English with completely different rules.

A ‘h’ after a consonant softens it. So ‘bh’ and ‘mh’ come out as a ‘v’, as in Siobhán (shiv-AWN), though Connacht and Ulster Irish make it more of a ‘w’. ‘dh’ and ‘gh’ are silent or a soft ‘y’. And ‘fh’ is silent, full stop. An ‘s’ beside an ‘i’ or an ‘e’ turns into ‘sh’.

The vowels are easier. ‘aoi’, which is what you get in Aoife, Caoimhe and Laoise, is always ‘ee’. Plain ‘ao’ is usually ‘ee’ as well, though Munster Irish makes it ‘ay’ in some words, and Aodh and Aodhán are always AY and AY-dawn. The little accent is a síneadh fada (‘sheen-ah fah-da’) and it makes the vowel long: ó is ‘oh’, í is ‘ee’. Learn those and the names below stop looking like a cat walked across the keyboard. Here are all nine, with the videos underneath. The ranks are from the CSO, the Central Statistics Office, who count every baby name in Ireland each year.

Aoife, Caoimhe and Treasa

Right, the first three, Aoife, Caoimhe and Treasa: have a listen and then read on!

1. Aoife

EE-fa. Two syllables, the second a soft ‘uh’. It means beauty or radiance. In the Children of Lir, Aoife is the jealous stepmother who turned four children into swans for 900 years: 300 on Lough Derravaragh, 300 on the Sea of Moyle and 300 at Inis Glora. A real Aoife, daughter of the king of Leinster, married Strongbow at Waterford in 1170. It was the number one girls’ name in Ireland in 2000 and number 34 in 2025. A 2023 study of UK search data found it the most-Googled ‘how to pronounce’ word in Britain, with 111,000 searches in 2022. Grammy winner Aoife O’Donovan is probably the most famous one now.

2. Caoimhe

This one splits the country. Where I’m from, in Cork, and across most of the Republic, it’s KWEE-va. Up in the North it’s KEE-va. Both are right. It means dear, gentle or precious, from caomh, the same root as Kevin (Caoimhín) and the surname O’Keeffe. There’s only an obscure early saint behind it, feast day 2 November, according to Woulfe’s Irish Names and Surnames. As a baby name it grew through the last century, from three births in 1966 to number 12 in 2003, and it sat at number 31 in 2025. Caoimhe Archibald is a Sinn Féin minister in the Northern Ireland Executive. Spell it Kweeva for the Australian workmate, or Keeva if her mother is from the North.

3. Treasa

Treasa splits even Irish people. In Irish it’s TRASS-a, short ‘a’ as in ‘trash’. Plenty of Irish families say TRAY-sa. What it isn’t is ‘TREE-sa’. It means strength, from treise, and it doubles as the Irish form of Teresa. It’s rare now and hasn’t made the CSO list since 2021. Sr Stan Kennedy of Focus Ireland was born Treasa Kennedy in Lispole, Co. Kerry, and Treasa Ní Mhiolláin from Inis Mór won the first Corn Uí Riada for sean-nós (‘shan-nohss’) singing in 1972.

Clíodhna, Laoise and Fiadh

These three look nothing like they sound, so have a watch before you guess!

4. Clíodhna

This one is ours in Cork. KLEE-na, with the ‘dh’ silent and the fada making the first syllable long, and a careful KLEE-uh-na is fine too. Never klee-ODD-na. Nobody is sure what it means (one old theory links it to the Gaulish goddess Clutonda), but the story is a good one. Clíodhna is queen of the banshees and patron goddess of Cork. She left the Otherworld for a mortal lover and was drowned by a great wave at Glandore, still called Tonn Chlíodhna, and her palace is Carrigcleena, a rock near Mallow. She’s also credited with handing the MacCarthys the secret of the Blarney Stone. Uncommon as a name, with 15 births in 2025 (number 273).

5. Laoise

The county Laois with an ‘a’ on the end: LEE-sha. It’s usually taken to mean light or radiant, because it may be a modern form of the old name Luigsech, ‘devoted to Lugh’, or it may simply be the county name. Either way there’s no ancient heroine called Laoise, and the CSO first lists it in 1971. Steady rather than trendy: number 124 in Ireland in 2025, never outside the top 160 in any year since 1997, and its best year was 2021 at number 96. Westport harper Laoise Kelly is its best-known bearer. It’s also the Irish for Louise, but please don’t say Louise, and definitely not Lisa (haha). LEE-sha.

6. Fiadh

FEE-a, with the ‘dh’ silent. It means wild, or a deer, from the Irish word fia. And here’s the mad thing: this is the biggest Irish-language girls’ name of the 2020s so far and it barely existed 25 years ago. The CSO first recorded it in 2002 with three births, it hit number one in 2021, and in 2025 it was number three with 273 births, plus another 79 spelt Fíadh. Met Éireann put Fíadh forward for the 2025/26 storm-name list and even sent the UK Met Office a recording of how to say it. The Met Office still swapped it for Fionnuala, worried that British ears would hear ‘fear’. Spell it Fia for anyone struggling.

Tuireann, Lasairfhíona and Róisín

Last three, and these are the hard ones. Even Irish people stop and think before saying Tuireann and Lasairfhíona, so have a listen before you read on!

7. Tuireann

Nothing in print agrees, so go with the video. You’ll see TIR-en and TUR-an; never ‘TWEER-ann’. The meaning is uncertain, usually linked to thunder. In the old stories Tuireann is a man, but he was in the video so here he is. His three sons killed Cian, the father of Lugh, and paid for it with an impossible quest, told in The Tragedy of the Children of Tuireann, one of the Three Sorrowful Tales of Erin. The CSO has never listed Tuireann or Tuiren, so you’ll hardly ever meet a girl called it. If you do, she’s named for Tuiren, Fionn mac Cumhaill’s aunt who was turned into a hound, not for the man in the tale.

8. Lasairfhíona

Four syllables, stress on LAH and REE: LAH-sa-REE-na. The ‘fh’ is completely silent and the í is a long ‘ee’. Singer Lasairfhíona Ní Chonaola from Inis Oírr, who was in The Banshees of Inisherin, gives it as ‘Lah-sah-reena’, and she would know. It means flame of wine, from lasair (flame) and fíona (of wine). It’s an old Connacht noble name, first written down in 1239, and Lasairfhíona Ní Chonchobhair, who died in 1282, was a daughter of the king of Connacht. The CSO has never had three of them in a year either, so if you ever meet one, tell her you read about her here (haha).

9. Róisín

ROH-sheen, or roh-SHEEN. Connacht and Ulster Irish stress the ROH, but Munster Irish, Cork included, slides it onto SHEEN, so both are grand. Not ‘ROY-sin’ and please, please not ‘Raisin’. It means little rose, Róis plus the pet ending -ín. It’s famous from the old song Róisín Dubh, where Ireland herself is the dark little rose. Some date it to the 1590s, though scholars argue about that. Sinéad O’Connor sang it on the 2000 album I Could Read the Sky, and Thin Lizzy borrowed it for the title of their 1979 album Black Rose. Róisín Murphy of Moloko is the famous one now. Number 29 in Ireland in 2025, and Rosheen works abroad.

Your questions answered

How do you pronounce Aoife?

EE-fa. The ‘aoi’ is ‘ee’ and the ‘e’ on the end is a soft ‘uh’. It’s never ‘AY-oh-fee’ or ‘Effie’.

Is Caoimhe pronounced Kee-va or Kwee-va?

Both! KWEE-va is what you’ll hear in Cork and most of the Republic, KEE-va in the North, and neither side is wrong. Ask the girl herself which one her mother uses.

What does Fiadh mean?

Wild, or a deer, from the Irish word fia. It’s a modern name, first recorded by the CSO in 2002, and it’s said FEE-a with a silent ‘dh’.

How do you pronounce Clíodhna?

KLEE-na, with the ‘dh’ silent, or KLEE-uh-na with the middle barely there. Don’t rhyme it with Fiona. The same rule makes Fiadh FEE-a.

Why do Irish names have accents?

The accent is a síneadh fada (‘sheen-ah fah-da’), and it lengthens the vowel. Róisín has two: ó is ‘oh’ and í is ‘ee’, giving ROH-sheen. Drop them and you get a different word: sean means old, Seán is the name, and Róisín without hers is a raisin.

What is the most popular Irish girl name in Ireland in 2025?

Éabha (AY-va), if you mean an Irish-language name: it was number two among all girls’ names in 2025 with 294 births, one place ahead of Fiadh on 273. Add the 79 girls spelt Fíadh, though, and Fiadh in both spellings comes out ahead. Fiadh was also number one in 2021.

More Irish names and words

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• Top 100 Irish surnames by county
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• How to say cheers in Irish (Sláinte)
• 131 Irish slang words

Which one is your favourite? Comment below and let me know, and if your name is on this list, tell me the worst version you’ve ever heard! Share this with whoever keeps saying ‘AY-oh-fee’. Thanks for reading; see you again soon.

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