Names that would / wouldn't work in France

[humanfraggle]

Hello

We're moving to France shortly after this bump is born, and trying to think of names that would work when said in a French accent, and names we really need to avoid.

For example, we love Hannah, but she would end up being 'annah - similarly like James, but 'J' doesn't work properly in French.

Thoughts please?!

Why don't you look at the 2009 or 2010 top 100 French baby names to get an idea what works there?

Tamara?

You should probably avoid all names with "th", plus those that change sex (like "Jean").

Florence sounds lovely with a French accent; there's also: Madeleine, Sophie, Valerie, Isabelle, Delphine, Louise, Francoise, Marianne, Ines, Solange.

You want to avoid any name with an "r" in it, as people will struggle to pronounce it. And that's the same with "th", as onimolap says. French people do get exposed to the English language a lot through media, films, etc, so you might be surprised with what you can get away with. I think they might even get James and other names starting with "J" right.

I'm going to have the same problem (I'm french and all my family lives in France) so I'm going to watch this one with interest!

I'm not too bothered about the name not being pronounced exactly the same, if you are, your options might be quite limited.

I've got a friend who called her daughter Joy-anna, I think that's lovely and it works perfectly. But then I know a french person who called their boy Andrew, which I thought weird at the time, as it sound very different with the "r".

Jenna, Sonia, Ella, Ellie, Emily, Natacha, John, Daniel, William

Oh, and I would recommend not calling a girl Nicola. It's wonderful in English, but completely a boy's name in french spelled "Nicolas". The girl version is Nicole.

Anything with an 'es' at the end. Particularly Frances unless you want to be really ironic. Meredith is another one to avoid!

Have a look at the top 100 names or sites like meilleurs prénoms.

Plenty of French/French speaking MNers on here so make a list of names you like and ask for feedback.

Natalie - works well though they will put a "h" in it!

Max, Jean, Philip?

Isabelle, Nathalie, Sophie, Christine, Claire, Eleanor, Emmeline, Lucy/Lucie, Yvette, Chloe, Zoe, Suzanne, Sarah, Emma,Vanessa, Anne, Caroline, Madeleine, Angelique, Amelie, Charlotte, Stephanie

Thomas, Jack, Noah, Samuel, Max, Alex, Mark,Bruno, David, Christian, Luke/Luc, Sebastien, Simon

Tried to think of names that are still English names but also work ok in French.

Juliette would work in both

Don't call your boy Laurence as it is a girl's name in France (boy's name is Laurent).

I know an English boy called Jacques - pronunciation is the same in both languages. Jack is popular in England, but this spelling would make it different on this side of the channel, whilst making his life easy in France?

My dc are half French and are called Emma and Luke. Friends in France have dc named Leo, Adam, Lea, Benjamin, Vincent, Mathilde, Clarice, Raphael, Oceane, Maelys.

Good luck with your new life in France.

Janine? It's French and means gracious.

My wife is French, I am English and for the son we went for a name that works in both countries so he would not have issues growing up in either country Julian/Julien

The daughter we figured a French name would never be an issue for her in the UK and went with Elodie.

Don't know how the name Paris would be taken...

Bridget/Brigitte?

Gabrielle

I agree with onimolap -

Madeleine & Sophie would both sound amazing in French.

DD has several french friends, amongst those who I like and whose names I like are Elodie, Magali and Gabrielle.

Genevieve
Agatha

Oh God, Meredith! We live in France and DH has a friend whose gf (American) is called Meredith, and the poor girl, her name gets crucified with every utterance.

Lovely name though.

Agree also re Frances. Francis is a man's name in France (as it is elsewhere) and they have never heard of the female version. It would be butchered.

Lots of names are different though I have Franco/Anglo friends and even between the parents they call their children two variations of the same name ie Thomas.

Constance is lovely for a girl I think, as is Clementine.

For a boy I like Christophe or Max.

wow, thanks for all the suggestions everyone, that's given us something to think about!

Our DD (11 mo) has quite an Enlgish name, so I THINK I'd stick with an English name, spelling-wise anyway, just to keep some similarity!

Badger we'd thought of Nicole, I like that it works if we ever came back to live in the UK (hopefully not! )

GoldFrakkincenseAndMyrrh we're moving to a little place called La Magistere, it's near Agen, about an hour north of Toulouse. Any of you around that area?!

Celine
Joelle

William
Philip

Amelie (or Emily, Emilie)
Marina

Louis
Sebastian
Zac

Top 100 Names in France:

Boys
Rank Name +/-

1. Enzo (0)
2. Lucas (0)
3. Nathan (+1)
4. Mathis (-1)
5. Louis (+4)
6. Hugo (0)
7. Thomas (-2)
8. Théo (-1)
9. Yanis (+8)

10. Tom (-2) 11. Raphaël (-1) 12. Mathéo (+1) 13. Maxime (+1) 14. Clément (-3) 15. Gabriel (+6) 16. Arthur (+6) 17. Léo (-5) 18. Ethan (+6) 19. Jules (+4) 20. Noah (+5) 21. Paul (-3) 22. Antoine (-6) 23. Alexandre (-8) 24. Baptiste (-5) 25. Alexis (-5) 26. Evan (+2) 27. Axel (0) 28. Quentin (-2) 29. Adam (+5) 30. Noa (+3) 31. Maxence (+1) 32. Valentin (-1) 33. Romain (-3) 34. Mattéo (-5) 35. Mael (+2) 36. Sacha (+8) 37. Mohamed (+4) 38. Kylian (+5) 39. Rayan (0) 40. Nicolas (-5) 41. Julien (-5) 42. Victor (-2) 43. Timeo (+25) 44. Nolan (+6) 45. Esteban (+10) 46. Mathys (+6) 47. Simon (+4) 48. Samuel (-1) 49. Pierre (-11) 50. Martin (+6) 51. Adrien (-9) 52. Noe (-3) 53. Gabin (+9) 54. Benjamin (-9) 55. Mathieu (-7) 56. Dylan (-10) 57. Corentin (-4) 58. Titouan (+7) 59. Robin (+2) 60. Tristan (-3) 61. Florian (-7) 61. Mathias (-1) 63. Antonin (+11) 64. Lorenzo (+7) 65. Bastien (-3) 66. Lilian (-7) 67. Erwan (-9) 68. Amine (+1) 69. Mateo (-2) 70. Lenny (+3) 71. Ilyes (+29) 72. Kevin (-6) 73. Anthony (-3) 74. Ilan (+17) 75. Killian (-3) 76. Dorian (-12) 77. Thibault (-2) 78. Eliott (+9) 79. Guillaume (-3) 80. Marius (+5) 81. Mehdi (-1) 82. Aaron (new) 83. Diego (-5) 84. Sofiane (+6) 85. Gaspard (new) 86. William (-3) 87. David (+9) 88. Matthieu (-11) 89. Rémi (-8) 90. Ryan (-8) 91. Luca (new) 92. Oscar (+5) 93. Rafael (-1) 94. Noam (+4) 95. Loic (new) 96. Yann (-12) 97. Charles (-3) 98. Augustin (new) 99. Jérémy (-20) 100. Jean (new) Girls Rank Name +/-

1. Emma (0)
2. Léa (0)
3. Clara (0)
4. Chloé (+1)
5. Manon (-1)
6. Ines (+1)
7. Camille (-1)
8. Sarah (0)
9. Jade (0)

10. Lola (0) 11. Anaïs (0) 12. Lucie (0) 13. Romane (+4) 14. Eva (+2) 15. Louise (+7) 15. Maëlys (+13) 17. Océane (-4) 18. Lilou (-4) 19. Zoe (0) 20. Marie (-5) 21. Lena (+6) 22. Juliette (+1) 23. Mathilde (-2) 24. Lisa (-6) 25. Lina (+8) 26. Célia (-1) 27. Julie (-7) 28. Laura (-2) 29. Lou (+6) 30. Charlotte (-1) 31. Louna (+7) 32. Jeanne (+2) 33. Clémence (-9) 34. Ambre (-4) 35. Noémie (+1) 36. Pauline (-4) 37. Maeva (-6) 38. Justine (-1) 39. Louane (+12) 40. Carla (+2) 41. Nina (+6) 42. Mélissa (+3) 43. Emilie (-2) 44. Alice (-4) 45. Alicia (-1) 46. Anna (+3) 46. Maëlle (-3) 48. Elisa (-9) 49. Margot (+1) 50. Lana (+6) 51. Julia (+2) 52. Margaux (+2) 53. Elsa (+4) 54. Elise (-2) 55. Leane (+3) 56. Luna (+4) 57. Agathe (-2) 58. Morgane (-10) 59. Leonie (+8) 60. Marine (-14) 60. Yasmine (+3) 61. Marion (-2) 63. Melina (+8) 64. Eloise (-3) 65. Lily (+9) 66. Candice (0) 67. Sara (-2) 68. Amandine (-6) 69. Rose (+22) 70. Valentine (-6) 71. Anaëlle (-2) 72. Salomé (-4) 73. Faustine (+27) 74. Angelina (-2) 75. Gabrielle (+15) 76. Loane (-6) 77. Lise (+7) 78. Ninon (+1) 79. Victoria (+4) 80. Elena (-2) 81. Olivia (+16) 82. Amélie (-9) 83. Cloé (-3) 84. Capucine (-7) 85. Sofia (0) 86. Meline (+7) 87. Adele (+1) 88. Kenza (new) 89. Elea (new) 90. Maya (new) 91. Clémentine (-2) 92. Cassandra (-11) 93. Fanny (-17) 94. Coline (-9) 95. Andréa (-3) 96. Myriam (-2) 97. Aya (new) 97. Heloise (+1) 99. Solène (-24) 100. Clarisse (-4)