British names with a French(ish) feel! Help!

[UsedToBeASize10]

Hi there. I need some advice on baby names so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some great ideas! My naming style is somewhere between very old English/twee and French. Yes, it sounds bizarre. But to give you an example, names like Lucie/Alice/Esme are perfect examples. Sadly, I cannot use the name Esme (which is utterly depressing as it's my absolute favourite) but I am looking for an alternative with a similar sound/feel to it without it being too 'out there' IYKWIM. Lucie is also off the table. So far, I have (reluctantly) drawn up a short list:

Girls: Elsa (ruined by Frozen?), Alice, Eliza....think that's about it...
Boys: Theo, Alexander....um....

I would love to hear your suggestions!

Marianne
Madeleine
Naomi
Zoe
Charlotte
Helene
Sabine
Adele
Corinne
Eleanor
Josephine
Monique
Veronique

Alexander
Charles
Benjamin
Adrien
Frederick
Nicolas
Thomas
Guy
Luc
William
Julian
Marc
Robert

Laurence is an out-of-fashion girl's name.

OP, how about something like Adele for a girl or charles for a boy? Both quite posh.

Ooh GreatAuntDinah that's the first time I've been corrected on Mumsnet - I feel very told off. Actually I know two children whose name is Liberte (sorry can't do the accent on the e on my phone), one girl, one boy so some people are using it as a name.

As for Agnes my great grandmother was an (English) hard sounding Agnes. Apart from her I have only ever heard it pronounced Ann-yay (happy to be proved it's not the French version) but I have Swedish and Polish friends so maybe it's from there.

Sorry minmooch, didn't mean to sound so snippy. These threads pop up quite regularly and people always post lists of names of their French mates / penfriends, forgetting that those names are worn by forty-year-olds and are now the equivalent of Steve and Andy in the UK.

Anyway I've checked and you're right, there have been six baby Libertés in the past forty years. I take it back.

I know a little girl named Marcelle, she's half French. I think its gorgeous.

Oops its shortened to Cece by her parents.

Here are the most popular recent (2010) baby names for France:

www.behindthename.com/top/lists/fr/2010

Most popular name at my crèche is Nail/Nael. Make of that what you will.

And sorry to be a smartarse again, but the Adelie penguin takes its name from Adélie Dumont d'Urville, the wife of the explorer who claimed Adelie Land for France

^ aww who am I kidding, I love^ being a smartarse

Eloise
Michelle
Eve

Matthieu
Adam
Luke

Adelie is indeed a real name.

Arse, you're right. Outsmarted. It is an actual name though and is on an upswing: www.aufeminin.com/w/prenom/p323/adelie.html

Yes I wondered if it was a back-formation from Happy Feet or something.

Camille is on my list, love it.

I used to know a Monet and a Herveline (slient H), thought Monet was gorgeous!

Elodie?

Stella
Emma
Anna
Ella
Louis/a
Stephanie

There are a number of Frenchish girls names that I really like:

Anouk
Ines
Amandine
Manon
Clemence
Vianne
Vivienne
Sylvie

Corus Fair enough (and haha re penguins) but the list is interesting in its own right, I think? And it has some current French names that could work well in English. Dated names in most cultures eventually come back - for example, only today, on another Mumsnet thread, a poster said that she really liked the name Barbara. But, as GreatAunt suggests, a bit of context might be useful.

The whole topic of dated perceptions of different countries is interesting. Not that long ago, I worked with a lovely person from South America who had been encouraged at school to practise her English by reading Sherlock Holmes stories. She was a bit surprised, when she first arrived in the UK....

Also Margot/Margaux