| Aoife | |
| Pronunciation: | in Irish ˈiːfʲə/ |
| Region: | Ireland |
| Language origin: | Goidelic languages |
| Meaning: | "beautiful, radiant" |
| Variant Forms: | Aífe, Aeife |
| Related Names: | from Aífe (Aeife) |
Aoife (in Irish ˈiːfʲə/) is an Irish and Gaelic feminine given name. The name is probably derived from the Irish Gaelic aoibh, which means "beauty" or "radiance".[1] It has been compared to the Gaulish name Esvios (Latinized Esuvius, feminine Esuvia), which may be related to the tribal name Esuvii and the theonym Esus.[2]
In Irish mythology, Aífe the daughter of Airdgeimm, sister of Scathach, is a warrior woman beloved of Cuchullain in the Ulster Cycle. T. F. O'Rahilly supposed that the Irish heroine reflects an otherwise unknown goddess representing a feminine counterpart to Gaulish Esus.[3]
Aífe or Aoife was also one of the wives of Lir in the Oidheadh chloinne Lir ("Fate of the Children of Lir"), who turned her stepchildren into swans. There is also Aoife (Áiffe ingen Dealbhaoíth), a woman transformed into a crane, whose skin after death became Manannán's "Crane-bag".[4]
The name is unrelated to the Biblical name Eva, which was rendered as Éabha in Irish, but due to the similarity in sound, Aoife has often been incorrectly anglicised as Eva or Eve. Aoife MacMurrough (also known as Eva of Leinster) was a 12th-century Irish noblewoman.
The first use of Aoife (that spelling) as a given name in 20th-century Ireland was in 1912.[5]