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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

French boys names that work in the UK

54 replies

ch1134 · 20/02/2015 20:10

Hi,
I'm after suggestions for French boys names that work in the UK please.
I want them to work in both and not sound overly 'French'.
For example, I like but can't use: Louis, Fabien and Maurice.
Less keen on 'Jean-Pierre'...
Ideas gratefully received! Thanks.

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2cats2many · 21/02/2015 14:02

Claude?

threepiecesuite · 21/02/2015 14:00

I like Matthieu and Arnaud and Félix the most.
Love all these names though!

SunnyBaudelaire · 21/02/2015 13:59

Patrick works well in France oddly

StoneBaby · 21/02/2015 13:55

I'm French and DH is British and we called our DS Samuel.
It works in both languages and it's the same spelling too.
Good luck

PrintScreen · 21/02/2015 08:00

Arthur is v popular in both France and England at the mo. In France it is pronounced Artour.

Original poster
ch1134 · 21/02/2015 07:14

Great ideas, thanks!
Xav, maybe pretentious yes, and my husband says no anyway!

OP posts:
Qwebec · 21/02/2015 01:37

I live in a francophone land and Benedict is a unisex name.

easy place to look for names that work all over Europe: biblical names.

also
Jonathan
Jonas
Julian/Julien
Maxim-e
Jacob
Loïc
Frederick
Patrick
Mederick

Sophronia · 21/02/2015 00:37

Lucas
Tristan
Leo
Gabriel
Nathan
Hugo
Raphael
Arthur
Thomas
Julien
Remy
David
Lucien
Felix
Leon
Vincent

Yika · 20/02/2015 23:50

Christian
Jules
Remy
Jerome

Alisvolatpropiis · 20/02/2015 23:16

Etienne

BikeRunSki · 20/02/2015 22:41

The Anglo-French boys/men I know are

Alex (Alexandre)
David
Thomas
Jaques
Ben (Benoit)
Sebastian
Patrick
Paul
Christophe
Henri
Olivier
Flo (Florian - need to be pretty tough to pull this off in UK I reckon)
Laurent (nn Ronnie)

I love Louis, I know one who spends a great deal of time telling people he's not called Lewis though.

Branleuse · 20/02/2015 22:41

Félix

sophie150 · 20/02/2015 22:39

I love xavier but would be worried about him being called x-zayveeyer like in x men.
I wasn't sure whether Za-vyer sounds a bit pretentious in English?
Love Sebastien also

Rivercam · 20/02/2015 22:35

Pierre
Piers
Marco
Luca
Lucien
Charles

MaraThonbar · 20/02/2015 22:30

Sebastian / Sebastien
Cédric
Benoît, nn Ben
YY to Maxim, or Maxence, nn Max
I loooove Etienne but perhaps too French?

Lemonsole · 20/02/2015 22:30

Benedict doesn't work in French - unless you're a girl. The male equivalent is Benoit.

nailslikeknives · 20/02/2015 22:27

Another vote for Xavier.
Love it!
But not pronounced the X-Men way!!

PunkAssMoFo · 20/02/2015 22:22

Benedict
Emmanuel
Austen
Curtis
Clement

BikeRunSki · 20/02/2015 21:03

Vincent
Luke
Nicholas
Paul
Victor

shopperholic101 · 20/02/2015 20:43

Maxim
Xavier is lovely too

puppy123 · 20/02/2015 20:42

Bruno? Better with French accent!

Artandco · 20/02/2015 20:35

Acel
Alix
Leonard
Elliott
Tristan

NimpyWWindowmash · 20/02/2015 20:29

Raphael

Yika · 20/02/2015 20:28

Matthias
Andre
Bastien
Victor
Guillaume
Eric

Original poster
ch1134 · 20/02/2015 20:26

All along the right lines. Thank you! Still waiting for one to grab me... closest is Xavier.

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