Boy's name - work in French and English

[LeBFG]

My mum can't pronounce anything vaguely French but we live in France. So, we're looking for boys names that work in both languages and are pronounced vaguely the same for ease of switching.

Problem is, last time round, we struggled like hell and finally settled on Leon just after DS's birth - very last minute. Found out a few weeks ago we're expecting another boy. A girl's name would be soooo much easier ....

Any help appreciated.

Oh yes, Pascal is a good one!

Patrick?

I feel for you. I live in France too and had to make my dc's names compatible with other languages. I thought they would be OK for the French, but they really struggle with them.

It's that awkward stress on the first versus last syllable issue....

We had it down to

Luc(a)
Marc
Victor
Alexander/re
Louis
Daniel
Stefan
Thomas
Blaise

DS used one of them, so I reckon we have a few left if we have another I have to say I didn't love all of them but they were liveable with

How about Guy? Not hard to pronounce in French. DS1 has pal called Guy and he is a lovely boy. Not relevant but true.

Here are the top 30 most popular boys names in France:

1. Enzo
2. Lucas
3. Mathis
4. Nathan
5. Thomas
6. Hugo
7. Théo
8. Tom
9. Louis

10. Raphaël 11. Clément 12. Léo 13. Mathéo 14. Maxime 15. Alexandre 16. Antoine 17. Yanis 18. Paul 19. Baptiste 20. Alexis 21. Gabriel 22. Arthur 23. Jules 24. Ethan 25. Noah 26. Quentin 27. Axel 28. Evan 29. Mattéo 30. Romain

Jerome? (I love the way the French say it)

Another vote for pascal. V cool name.

Julien

I thought Pascale was a girls' name in France

Vincent
Luke
Samuel
Daniel
Patrick
Dominuc

Max

Your mum doesn't have to pronounce a French name perfectly, or French friends to pronounce an English name perfectly; so long as there is a name that is vaguely comparable in the two languages, things will be fine.

I have a cousin called Xavier which is very different in the two languages, and another cousin called Etienne (who is - unsurprisingly - Stephen, over here). They were both boarders in England, but spent holidays with their (French/half-French) parents in France. Really there was never a problem with the names.

I have an English friend who has one name in London, where he went to school, and a completely different name in Manchester where he grew up. He spends almost equal amounts of time in both places, and has long term sets of friends in each place - and yes, we do sometimes all get together. He has managed like that for 60 odd years.

THanks so much for the suggestions. I'm more of a morning poster so I haven't been back to comment until now.

A few things. I love George, Max, Louis and Dominic but have been vetoed (completely unreasonable family members with same name ).

Some we just don't like: David, Gregory, Chris, Eric, Henri, Frederick

We have in fact discussed nearly all these names last time round and ended up thinking that some sort of compromise was neccessary. Almosts, rather than exactly the sames, would be acceptable. But it's coming to terms with it. DH's family would really struggle with something like Thierry for example.

Some that stand out for me: Etienne, Samuel (DH doesn't like biblical names though , Pascal, Andre, Hugo, Xavier.

DH is the real problem. I suppose we both like Jake more than the other suggestions. But with an odd surname, we don't want to curse DS2 with a difficult first name to boot.

Another strand of possibilities: English names the French know and recognise.

For example, DH has just suggested Lance (well known cyclist connection). Everyone'll recognise and be able to spell this name! Such a good idea. Not sure if DS2 will be lynched for this name though!!! Any other suggestions along this line would also be very gratefully received.

Why can't you use names of a family member? I did, although was a relative I don't see often. She was honoured!

I've been working on DH about this - he likes name to be unique. We both have names that no one else we've met has. So, very good point Iggy, something has to give I feel.

Max is only a second cousin so I want to put Maxime on the short list. Dominic is an uncle so same reasoning. Louis and George are close cousins though, so I will veto these.

Leon and Louis would sound like kittens not brothers anyway!

Lance reminds me of a lancet. What about Raoul

love that name!

I don't live in France, but next door (Belgium) so trends are probably completely different. Plus it's a long time since I had my 2 DS. Both times, it took us ages to find names that were acceptable in English, French and Persian (my DH's background). We had to change DS2's name after he was born as it meant something unpleasant in Persian, so instead of relaxing and enjoying my newborn, I spent days frantically thumbing through name books !

In the end you just have to choose what you like and what goes with your surname and people will get used to the pronunciation.

These are the names that were on my short list : Nathan, Ethan, Callum, Kiran/Keiran, Kian, Ryan, Zac (can't go wrong with that !), some names of DS' friends are : Noah, Gaetan, Alexandre, Sebastien, Raphael, Luca, Maxime.

Good luck !

Gosh, I find Raoul difficult to pronouce! DH struggles to say the 'dre' which is why we don't really want Alexandre and the ilk. So complicated...

Totally agree with Kenneth about the kittens. And you are so right Mad. Good job we have a few months left to decide!

Someone will always have the same name as you unless it's something ridiculous like clinique

I was a bit like that at first (my name is unusual) but figured that the person maketh the name, the name does not maketh the person

And ended up giving both DCs names from the top ten. Incidentally we don't know any other babies with their names.

What about Rael? Is what my dp is called :) Prounounced Rail. Better than Raoul and Raoul always puts me in mind on the irn bru ads :)

Ah feel your pain OP!

DS was born in Spain (Tenerife) and has British and Canarian relatives.

We named him Tomás (tom-a-s) He gets is pronounced as Thomas by UK rele's.
I also dicovered that this is the Welsh spelling without an accent and also has a French friend called the same, spelt the same and pronounce Tom-A in French.

So I would go with Tomas/Tomás/Thomas

I was thinking of Patrick, my son tells me the name Eamon is well tolerated by the French.

I know a French/english couple with a Tristan, which I think is lovely. I wanted ds to be an Etienne but was vetoed because nous habitons a à Middlesex not à Paris, sadly.

A long time ago I had a friend whose wife was Persian. They used a Persian name for pfb and the Englishers just had to do their best; second child had English name and third back to Persian. They didn't worry at all about making it easy in whichever language and the kids all wound up with shortened names anyway; in one language the names were pronounced in one way and in the other language they were pronounced another way, with different people managing more or less close to the correct pronunciation.

I don't understand why you're worrying, to be honest. What if you were to end up living in Germany, for instance? All your names would be pronounced differently.

I think this is a bit of a storm in a teacup, and I think you're having enough trouble finding names acceptable to both of you with wondering about how sundry others will manage.