Caoimhe

That's the beauty of Gaeilge, the beautiful language that once lilted across the Irish hills with regularity a couple hundred years ago. Gaeilge is a dying art form, as is Scottish Gaelic. Cymraeg (or Welsh for the uninitiated) is very commonly used in Wales, so it lives on. The thing I've noticed about these languages is the use of dipthongs. For example, with Caoimhe, there's a dipthong in there that few notice, unless you've learned Gaeilge, and that dipthong is "mh", which is pronounced with a very soft v sound. Caomh is Gaelic for peace and it is conjugated somewhat to create Caoimhe.

Pronunciation: http://forvo.com/search/Caoimhe/

How the hell is this pronounced "KEE-va" or "KWEE-va"? From how it's spelled, it should be "ca-OM-ee" (like Naomi). Why do people spell a name one way then pronounce it another?

In the Irish language, the diphthong 'aoi' is pronounced 'ee.' And when you add a seimhiu (pronounced 'SHAY-voo'; Irish for "lenition") to b or m, these become v or w sounds. A seimhiu is the letter h, used to soften or even silence certain consonants. In Irish, most names with a 'bh' or 'mh' are pronounced like v. But in regular words, whether they're pronounced like v or w depends on whether they're adjacent to e/i or a/o/u, respectively.

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With these rules in mind, consider Caoimhe. It's both a name, and the 'mh' is slender (surrounded by i and e), so you pronounce it like a v.
C=K
Aoi=ee
Mh=v
E=eh, aa
Keeveh, or Keeva.

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If the c were slender (that is, followed by e or i), it would be expected to pronounce it like 'qu.' But in some places, people pronounce it like 'qu' anyway, because it's followed by an 'ee' sound, even if it is broad (followed by a, o or u). It's a regional thing.

In Scotland they also pronounce Caoimhe, Koy-vah (Coy rhymes with boy, ALMOST sounds like "Qwaver").

My name is Caoimhe Siobhan and we pronounce it Keeva. I was born in Ireland but I grew up in the States. I love both of my names. I go by the nickname Keavy.