Family History

I’ve been lying to all of you. 

In your head (assuming you know who I am), as you read the name “Niamh”, you are pronouncing it as ‘neve’. However, if you step foot in my house and you hear someone call out my name you would never hear ‘neve’ spoken even once. I was born as Niamh Elizabeth Lane in Atlanta, Georgia where my parents at the time, argued over the pronunciation of my name. My mom favored ‘neve’ as it’s not only the most common pronunciation, but she also had a roommate in college with the same name and that way of saying it. My dad, pushed that my name be two syllables, pronounced ‘knee-iv’ (and if you ever find yourself in the proximity of my dad and you are saying my name, he will not hesitate to correct you “because ‘neve’ is not my name”). The only reason why I introduce myself as ‘neve’ now is because I got tired of correcting people from saying ‘knee-ev’ in preschool through kindergarten. I would rather people say a correct pronunciation of my name than to continuously pronounce it slightly off.

Regardless of pronunciation, the name Niamh originates in Ireland and in Gaelic (Irish) it means “bright” or “radiant”. When I was little, my grandmother would always tell me an old Irish tale about this beautiful, fair-haired princess of Tir’na’nOg, who’s name was also Niamh, who rode on a captivatingly beautiful white horse that had the ability to walk on water. The princess fell in love with a young man from Ireland named Oisin and convinced him to return back with her to “The Land of Eternal Youth” and they were married and lived happily for 300 years.

My Irish background has played a huge role in shaping my identity, my personality and perspective on the world. My grandmother, Betty Noone, grew up on a farm in the rural town of Foxford in Co. Mayo, located in the northwestern part of Ireland. She came over to America seeking a job as a nurse and fell in love with my grandfather, Daniel O’Neil in Boston. Shortly after their marriage, they adopted my mom in Los Angeles, named her Eliesh O’Neil (which is irish for Elizabeth), and they moved to Ireland. Later on they adopted two more children and named them with irish names as well. Throughout my mom’s childhood, she moved around a lot—specifically between Atlanta, Georgia and Ireland. My mom always tells me stories about how it was so difficult to transition back and forth from a public school in the south and in a city like Atlanta and then move back to Ireland, where she went to a private, all-girls school that was structured very different, spoke Gaelic, and focused on other subjects. As an attempt to fit in, she went by Elizabeth instead of Eliesh and worked extremely hard to “lose” her Irish accent, but no matter how hard she tried, she stuck out with her strawberry-blonde hair and freckles. 

Despite her previous feelings regarding exclusion, my mom passed on a sense of pride to me and my siblings. The Irish are known for being . When I was 4 years old I started Irish Dancing and didn’t quit until more than 8 years later. In those 8 years my life revolved around going to practice three times a week, and I being exposed to Irish music and Irish culture all around me all the time, without even realizing it because I was and I still am very used to it. I never really found it odd that my family has some variation of meat and potatoes at dinner or how on Easter we eat roast beef and cabbage. 

**In case you’re curious**

My mom’s name is pronounced El-eish

Oldest brother’s name is Eoin (pronounced ‘owen’)

Then there’s Graeme (pronounce ‘graham’)

Little sister Cadhla (pronounced ‘kyla’)

And my little brother Aodhán (pronounced ‘aiden’)

(Cadhla and Aodhán are twins)