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Baby names

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

Original poster

French-English Baby Names

112 replies

Gallia2022 · 09/03/2022 10:52

Hello,

I'm starting this thread as my partner and I are expecting a child in 3 months and we are looking for French or "mixed" baby names (i.e. French names which can be easily pronounced and sound nice in English or names that are both French and English). My problem is that my partner is very picky! I have a list and would be interested to know what English-speaking people think of these names before I talk to him. I think some might be a bit too "out there" for his taste, but I would be however curious to know what people make of them. We don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl so we have to consider both:

Boys:
Remy
Pierre
Joseph
Auguste
Emile
Armand
Edgar
Mayeul

Girls:
Iris
Leonie
Beatrice
Octavie/Octavia
Adelaide
Blanche
Garance

Please let me know if you have other suggestions!

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savehannah · 09/03/2022 22:38

Dd has a friend called Emile and apparently new/supply teachers always say Emily. And everyone puts the emphasis in the wrong place (on the Em) rather than on the (mile)

Elodie is lovely and wouldn't be mispronounced by Brits. Garance would be horrid pronounced British style.

WeasilyPleased · 09/03/2022 22:30

I have never heard Garance before and font speak French but I think it's gorgeous. I also like Amandine.

ouch321 · 09/03/2022 19:38

Why are you allowed to give it a pure French name but not a pure English name?

One of you is English I'm guessing so why is that not permitted?

Are you living in France and subject to their naming rules? Otherwise it makes no sense.

SwedishEdith · 09/03/2022 19:28

I love French names

An easy option for boys names are French footballers as they'll be well known:
Antoine
Sylvain
Didier
Thierry
Marcel
Fabian
Jules
Emmanuel

Girls:
Amandine
Apolline
Capucine
Celeste/Celestine
Delphine
Fabienne - love!

Nice lists on here snippetsofparis.com/french-girl-names/

Taswama · 09/03/2022 19:15

Nina for a girl
Cecile

Agree about avoiding Emile because of similarity to Emily.

Edward / Edouard?
David?
Marc / Mark

If you are living in the UK and planning to stay here I wouldn't worry about whether your son or daughter's name fits their generation. I'm half French and my name is not common in my age group in France but it doesn't matter in the least as it wasn't a 'mum / aunty' name growing up here.

Promiseauction · 09/03/2022 19:03

Camille
Marianne

Malo

Yika · 09/03/2022 18:41

Oh and Daphne

Yika · 09/03/2022 18:40

Like pp I think garance would be problematic in an English accent, and Blanche isn’t brilliant either.

The other names are nice.

Just to throw in a couple of others:
I quite like
Adrien
Fabian
Clovis
Sibylle

Roselilly36 · 09/03/2022 18:28

I love Xavier and Maxime

HomeHomeInTheRange · 09/03/2022 18:22

Garance will sound horrible pronounced by Brits. Rhymed with ‘Clarence’

I love Emil. Surely it is known?

Elodie
Celeste

TrashyPanda · 09/03/2022 18:03

Btw - my French grandparent insisted my forenames were French in origin. Like you, my parents chose names that work well in both languages. Nobody hearing my names would ever think “British name” or “French name”.

TrashyPanda · 09/03/2022 18:00

Emil without an -e is easier to use, as with the -e it's easy to mistake for Emilie

I do love Emilie (pronounced the French way) for a girl.

Ninette is lovely too.

HelebethH · 09/03/2022 17:28

Boys
Andre
Phillipe
Anton
Charles
Sebastien
Leo

Girls
Celeste
Melody
Antoinette
Helena
Marianne
Josephine
Vivienne
Astrid
Flora
Violet
Margot
Thea

whensmynexthol1day · 09/03/2022 17:03

Oscar and felix are lovely in both languages.
I love Xavier in French, but it's been totally butchered for the English language by x men!

Elodie is another French name I love but not so sure how well it works in English

FayCarew · 09/03/2022 15:49

Victor

Original poster
Gallia2022 · 09/03/2022 14:22

Thank you for much for all your comments and responses. It’s really hard to find a name that sound nice in both languages and to be honest I think my partner will end up vetoing a lot of them.

Just to clarify, I don’t mind names that are pronounced differently in both languages, I just want the pronunciation to be “easy” for English speakers. Our first son is call Arthur, I pronounce it the French way, his father pronounces it the English way and he responds to both! I used to mind about accents but I don’t anymore, I think I’ll just use them in French and not in English.

Thank you also for the suggestions, unfortunately I cannot use a lot of them as they are already in the family (like Alice/Juliette/Chloe) or have already been rejected by the father (like Louis, which seemed like an obvious choice). I quite like Oscar and Felix.

OP posts:
Tsuni · 09/03/2022 14:21

Estelle

Étienne

Tulips21 · 09/03/2022 13:15

Collette is nice
Nicole

Squeakerfoot · 09/03/2022 13:10

Other suggestions:

Oscar
Leo
Gabriel
Arthur
Hugo
Felix
Benjamin
Tobias
Jonas

Eleanor/Eléonore
Lena
Clara
Chloe
Amelie
Juliette
Alice
Romy

They won't be pronounced the same in each language but children will make the switch automatically.

RebeccaCloud9 · 09/03/2022 13:09

I think you'd have to be prepared for English pronunciations regularly, so decide how you want it to be said and repeat! Everyone will get an unknown pronunciation in the end, but may use the anglicised version until corrected

RebeccaCloud9 · 09/03/2022 13:08

I love Loic

Thoosa · 09/03/2022 13:05

Manon is an amazing name. I wish I’d thought of it in time for DD.

follygirl · 09/03/2022 13:03

Girls:

Isabelle
Céline

BlackCoffeeInAPoolOfSunshine · 09/03/2022 12:56

*hear not here

BlackCoffeeInAPoolOfSunshine · 09/03/2022 12:54

SummaLuvin there are no names pronounced identically by native speakers of languages with different vowel sounds. If you don't speak both languages the difference might not be particularly noticeable, but once you have your "ear in" and are fluent in both you here the difference.