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Baby names

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

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

OP posts:
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JaneGlorianaVillanueva · 27/05/2019 10:34

Alexander and Madeleine are lovely!

Ophelia, Aurelia, Ottilie, Evangeline, Alice, Ines, Lea, Emma, Lena/Lina, Lucy, Eloise,

Gabriel, Leo, Louis, Hugo, Lucas, Nathan/Nathaniel

Sorry I'm not very good with boys names, girls names are much easier for me 😂

Peachbubble · 27/05/2019 10:29

Sebastien
Daniel
Benjamin
Leo

Clara
Josephine
Margot
Gabrielle

anothernotherone · 27/05/2019 10:23

Hugo
Luis
Arthur

Pronunciation will be totally different in each country of course, but you can't avoid that - in the end there are no names pronounced identically across languages. I found my kids changed the pronunciation to fit the language before they were old enough to even know they were doing it, while I use the English pronunciation of their names in both languages which has only occasionally caused minor feather ruffling with ransoms trying to tell me how to pronounce my own child's name...

Arthur is very different because of the th obviously.

BikeRunSki · 27/05/2019 10:22

Stella
Alice
Rose
Eloise?
Lucie

LuckyAtCards · 27/05/2019 10:10

Charlotte
Hugo

Starlight456 · 27/05/2019 10:06

Is Florence French?

rosetonightplease · 27/05/2019 10:04

Elodie, Simone, Ophelia (Ophélie)
Boys.. Henri , Philippe, Louis