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Baby names

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

Original poster

Classic names that work in French and English

57 replies

HPandbean · 27/05/2019 10:00

DH and I are struggling to think of classic (but not dull) names to compliment our unusual surname. The other thing is we have immediate family in France and baby will spend time there so we’d like the name to work in French and English. Our current favourites are Alexander and Madeleine but we’d love some more ideas.

For a girl DH likes Anna and Sophie which are nice but...meh... they don’t excite me! We both like Sophia and Isobel/Isabella but they wouldn’t work for us as they’re being used by family and friends.

For boys, we are stuck! Help Confused

Thank you x

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NameChange30 · 27/05/2019 15:51

Just thought of another. Adele. I know a French one and it works equally well in English.

Sarcelle · 27/05/2019 15:51

Jacqueline

FrownPrincess · 27/05/2019 15:43

Alice
Louise
Alexandra
Maude
Angélique

Sebastien
Raphael
Robert
Louis
Jeremy

NameChange30 · 27/05/2019 15:43

Louis-Gerard "fairly French" Grin
Now that's English understatement for you Wink

Aria999 · 27/05/2019 15:41

Ella
Charlie
Rafael
Ludo

(From my French friends with non French kids names, we also have a Mathilde and a Louis-Gerard but those are fairly French)

CielBleuEtNuages · 27/05/2019 15:39

We decided on names that are spelt the same (and no accents), not caring that pronounciation is different.

The DC have no problems with that whatsoever. From a very young age, DS2 has always said DS1's name with the accent of whatever language he was then going to continue the conversation in. Very cute.

Some ideas: Arthur, Benjamin, Charles, Jules, Dominic, Damien, Adam, Joseph, Sebastien, Gustave, Auguste, Louis, Thomas

Charlotte, Emilie, Catherine, Sophie/Sophia, Alice, Iris, Florence,

GinoPlaysTheTango · 27/05/2019 15:37

Eleanor

NameChange30 · 27/05/2019 15:35

I love Simone though. Simone de Beauvoir and Nina Simone!

NameChange30 · 27/05/2019 15:34

PS a lot of the names suggested here are too French IMO. I love French names but as we live in the UK I didn't want something that most English speakers would massacre (sorry but they would!)

NameChange30 · 27/05/2019 15:31

We are a French/English couple too.
I assume it's your DH who is French?
DH and I each wrote a list separately, then compared lists and basically vetoed most of the names on each other's because they didn't work very well in our own language!
It is difficult to find names that work equally well but aren't completely vanilla and boring.
We ruled out all names with "th" because the pronunciation is so different. Also ruled out names which were difficult to spell / pronounce in either language. And (as we knew we were having a boy) any names which sounded like a girl's name (and we would have done the same with ruling out masculine names for a girl). For example we ruled out Daniel, even though it's lovely, because it sounds like "Danielle" in French.

Some suggestions for you...

Boys:
Noah - I think this is one of the few names which is actually pronounced the same in both languages. It is very popular in the UK atm though (not that it should bother you if you love it)
Max - I like the full name Maxime in French (although it does sound a bit like the girl's name Maxine - you could mitigate that by spelling it Maxim)
Leo - although it's Lee-oh in English and Lay-o in French
Robin - also pronounced differently but not too much so
Toby (DH vetoed this as he doesn't like it in a French accent, but I still like it and think it works)

Girls:
Alice
Anna
Emma
Florence
Margot

TatianaLarina · 27/05/2019 15:20

Manon is one of my favs.

Maëlys
Capucine
Aurélie

Sebastian
Gabriel
Benjamin

Original poster
HPandbean · 27/05/2019 13:05

Thanks everyone - there are lots we hadn’t considered.

We love Louis and Noah and I really like Élise, Manon, Fleur and Genevieve. Just have to convince DH!

OP posts:
Ricekrispie22 · 27/05/2019 12:52

Colette
Eleanor
Beatrice
Elsa
Elise
Adelaide
Annabel
Emily
Florence
Jasmine
Lois
Madeline
Rosalyn
Juliette
Vivienne

Oscar
Leo
Reuben
Henry
Noah
Max
Alexander
Thomas

Purplelavenders · 27/05/2019 12:42

Isn't it Alexandre in French?

How about
Clara
Josephine
Estelle

Louis
Quentin
Nathan

pearldeodorant · 27/05/2019 11:27

Loads of names work beautifully in both!

Chloe
Violette
Émilie
Eloise
Anna
Lucie
Amandine
Élodie
Genevieve
Octavia
Sylvie
Flora

Michael
Oscar
Leo
Theo
Xavier (love this!)
Sebastian
George
Victor
Thomas
Louis
Olivier (love this so much more than Oliver!)

3timeslucky · 27/05/2019 11:21

Amelie - I think you can get away with not using the accent if you want

AdaColeman · 27/05/2019 11:18

Fleur is very pretty.

AdaColeman · 27/05/2019 11:15

Miriam works in both languages.

AdaColeman · 27/05/2019 11:13

Claude is used for girls & boys in France, often linked with another name such as in Marie Claude.

Charles works well in both languages.

Genevieve and Manon are French names that transfer well in English.

Wallywobbles · 27/05/2019 11:09

Eliane.

Auntpetunia2015 · 27/05/2019 10:59

Elisabeth for a girl and Edward for a boy. Both easily transfer to French

Teddybearhunter · 27/05/2019 10:56

Clara

Camille

eurochick · 27/05/2019 10:49

Beatrice
Charlotte
Nathalie

Sebastian
Dominic
David

Skyejuly · 27/05/2019 10:49

Emma

tdam · 27/05/2019 10:46

How about Claude for a boy and Mathilde for a girl? Or Sebastien? Amélie?