British names with a French(ish) feel! Help!

Camille or Miriam are so gorgeous. Wished I'd thought of them myseld

Georgette
Miriam
Claudine
Sylvie

Elsie
Eleri
Elodie

Milo
Rafael
Gabriel

Louis? For a girl, Juliette or Chloe?

What about Annabel, Eloise, Elise, Alix, Constance, Louise...

Has nobody given Michelle? For a girl that's British enough not to have people asking if you are French.

Michel for a boy over here might not work so well unless you really are French.

I'm not remotely French but my DD is Elodie. My girls list for this current one (37+1) is Camille (front runner), Delphine, Celine, Claudine, Sabine, Meredith & Vivienne. As for boys.... colour me stumped! The lists in this thread will be pored over this afternoon though

I clicked on here to say Alice, but see it was in your OP.

Choose Alice! It's so beautiful!

Romilly

Sylvie will always remind me of St Etienne. And I have known a few Etiennes in the last few years too.

my twin boy cousins have a french mother and are called marcelle and gustav.. maybe too French?

rhubarb - I have never met anyone else who has even heard of Marjolaine, let alone knows how to say it. I would have used it for dd1, but couldn't believe English people would be able to say it, and they would want to shorten it, and I couldn't find and short version I liked.

(ours is a duthc marjoleine, and you say the last e as well)

Some lovely names on this thread. My favourite is Anouk. And I can add Marjolaine to the list, which I think is absolutely beautiful.

For boys, I like Claude and Thierry.

Raphal is a brilliant name and wouldn't sound old fashioned in French.

I work with an Emeline (who goes by Mimie) and a Malle.

Aimee

Cecily
Cecile

Margot

Anais
Anouk

Audre

Elise

Emilia

Rosalie

Gabrielle?

Some of the more unusual names of young children that I've come across recently in France (not so sure about spelling):

Girls: Alwena, Amalia, Lison, Lise, Faustine, Abelie, Evane, Clementine, Naëlle

Boys: Augustin, Malo, Lino, Ninoë, Ilyes, Loris

Some of the names in DS1's class at school (Belgium - French speaking) are:

Girls - Lea, Nessa, Marie, Ema, Anais,

Boys - Maxime, Julien, Alexandre, Victor

I also like Elodie or Aurelie (both names of my work colleagues...) for a girl.

Top 50 French boys and girls names:

Boys Rank

Rank Name

1. Nathan +1

2. Lucas -1

3. Enzo 0

4. Léo +6

5. Louis -1

6. Hugo +2

7. Gabriel 0

8. Ethan +5

9. Mathis -4

10. Jules -4

11. Raphaël -2

12. Arthur +3

13. Tom -1

14. Théo -3

15. Noah -1

16. Timeo +10

17. Matheo -1

18. Clément +2

19. Maxime 0

20. Yanis -2

21. Maël +3

22. Adam -1

23. Thomas -6

24. Evan +1

25. Paul -3

26. Nolan +3

27. Axel +1

28. Antoine -5

29. Alexandre -2

30. Noé +2

31. Noa +3

32. Sacha +5

33. Baptiste -3

34. Maxence -1

35. Mohamed +1

36. Gabin +3

37. Alexis -6

38. Rayan 0

39. Quentin -4

40. Valentin 0

41. Mathys +3

42. Victor +3

43. Samuel +5

44. Esteban -2

45. Kylian -4

46. Martin +1

47. Romain -4

48. Simon +1

49. Matteo -3

50. Aaron +6

51. Emma 0

52. Léa +1

53. Chloé +1

54. Manon +1

55. Inès +1

56. Lola +4

57. Jade -5

58. Camille -1

59. Sarah -1

60. Louise +3

61. Zoé -2

62. Lilou 0

63. Lena +3

64. Maëlys 0

65. Clara -4

66. Eva -1

67. Lina +2

68. Anaïs -1

69. Louna +2

70. Romane -2

71. Juliette +1

72. Lucie -2

73. Ambre +6

74. Alice +10

75. Lou +5

76. Lisa -1

77. Clémence -3

78. Jeanne -1

79. Louane +3

80. Mathilde -4

81. Océane -8

82. Charlotte -1

83. Marie -5

84. Noémie -1

85. Celia 0

86. Anna +4

87. Nina +2

88. Pauline -3

89. Lana +13

90. Laura -3

91. Lily +4

92. Léonie +6

93. Alicia -2

94. Julie -6

95. Julia +6

96. Rose -4

97. Margaux +9

98. Élise -4

99. Melina +9

100. Luna -7

None of the babies at my crèche have typical French names (I do live in an area with a big immigrant population though). Kids at crèche are called Stacey, Enzo, Diago, Nathan, Ethan, names like that.

I'll put forward Justine and Clémence, both names of small girls I know.

Half the babies in our village (UK!) are called Amelie. Not keen myself as I couldn't stand the film or the actress in it but the name is pretty.

Amy written Aimee or pronounced Ay-may is pretty.

I love Sylvie - getting a comeback in UK these days.
Also love Claude - it looks so stylish - the name equivalent of an Audrey Hepburn elfin haircut!

Estelle?

Danielle
Aurelie (with an accent on the e)
Aude
Aurore

Also Margot/Margaux

Corus Fair enough (and haha re penguins) but the list is interesting in its own right, I think? And it has some current French names that could work well in English. Dated names in most cultures eventually come back - for example, only today, on another Mumsnet thread, a poster said that she really liked the name Barbara. But, as GreatAunt suggests, a bit of context might be useful.

The whole topic of dated perceptions of different countries is interesting. Not that long ago, I worked with a lovely person from South America who had been encouraged at school to practise her English by reading Sherlock Holmes stories. She was a bit surprised, when she first arrived in the UK....