French name in England

[jmk8009]

We're both French living in London and would like to pick a name for our little girl that reflects her heritage but doesn't sound too odd or old-fashioned in English. The ones that we really like are Clémence (possibly Clémentine) and Pauline, but we're also considering Charlotte and Caroline. What do you think?

I had friends at school and their father was French, so their parents chose Alicia and Genevieve and no-one thought anything of it. Pretty names.

I'm not massively sold on Pauline for a baby but I really like the others, they're lovely.

Amelie is very popular in England at the moment. I live in an area of London with a lot of French families and I know babies and toddlers with French parents called Amelie, Julie, Ines, Josephine and Florence.

Clmence sounds a bit like a boy's name to someone of English mother tongue (IMO).

I love Clmentine, though it is a type of orange

Pauline, I think, would be considered chavvy.

Charlotte and Caroline are both nice, good solid English names - I like both of them. Caroline is probalby less common these dayse, though it was fairly popular in the 60s and 70s.

I love the name Aurélie/Aurélia - just love them!! :)

A friend of mine is French and she and her husband (an English French teacher) named their daughter Cleo :)

At my children's school we have a lot of Polish little girls called Paulina.

The name Pauline reminds of the lady from 'birds of a feather' programme that my older sister used to watch years and years ago.

Clementine is great, the best of your choices imo. Could you miss off the accent? As it would be confusing and most English databases wont accept foreign characters so could cause her problems.

Pauline is old fashioned and not in a good way.

charlotte is nice but a bit popular and Caroline is a bit old fashioned but i quite like it.

Aurelie would be pronounced 'orally' in England. I would avoid it.

How about Marianne? Can't get much more French than that!
(and the pronunciation is similar in English and French.)

Orally, really? I would pronounce it 'Or-ell-eigh' of that makes sense?

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I like Clemence a lot.

Not keen on Clementine though. It is an orange and makes me think of 'Oh my darling..'

Pauline feels dated and is definitely not due a comeback anytime soon.

Charlotte is too popular though it is pretty.

Caroline feels stuffy and harsh to my ears.

Cherry, I don't mean that would be the correct pronunciation, but think of how most English people pronounce Amelie.

We had

• Clara
• Isabelle
• Isabella (Bella)
• Charlotte
• Melanie
• Laura
• Melodie

I had two boys...

Clemence pretty and quite unusual.

Charlotte and Caroline - pretty but very popular

Pauline - dinner lady

Hi
I'm the other way round (English with French husband in Paris).
As lots of posters have said, Pauline has very different connotations in the UK. Although I now really like it having met lots of gorgeous, bright little French Paulines, it's probably best avoided if you are staying in London.
Of those you mention Charlotte probably has the most similar associations and feel in English and French.
I really like Clemence and Clementine, though they would be seen as quite unusual names in the UK I think, and for the latter I think the orange association would maybe be made more than in France.

Other names which are popular in France at the moment and which I think work in English: Inès, Anna, Alice, Clara, Camille, Zoé. (But I've been out of the UK for 10 years, so could be out of touch!).

For the poster who asked about Lilou - it was in the top 10 in 2013, so think it is okay (though I've never met one).

Oh wow, thanks for your replies everyone! I felt that something was wrong with Pauline, but didn't know how bad it was. Now I do, so I'll definitely cross it off the list! It looks like Charlotte is the safest choice, followed by Clementine/Clemence and Caroline.

MadeInChorley, these are some lovely names, all very popular in France at the moment. So popular that we already have Amelie (x2), Josephine and Julie in the family!

Badtime, Marianne is VERY French but it's not common these days, so has a bit of a 70's vibe. Marion would be the more modern version.

CherryPie3, I do like Aurelie as well, and we might use it as a middle name. Rocketjam, Clara is on our list too. I should seriously consider some names that don't start with 'C', lol!

Aurelie is pretty but think you're right to give it middle name status, doesn't it sound more or less like 'orally'? I can see that being a name to provoke certain jokes in school.

KittenOverlord, Lilou is popular in France nowadays, so I wouldn't say it's frumpy or old-fashioned. I actually heard it on the Eurostar just the other day. It would be considered quite unusual though, not your typical 'classy' name.

I know an aurelie and she pronounces it o-re-LEE. I thought it was a lovely name and never made the 'orally' connection but then i am not a ten year old boy

I have two dd's a Madeleine and a celeste unusual enough for people to probably recognise me if they know me but I do get asked about any French connections quite a lot, I do like Caroline as a lovely name that isn't too popular and can be shortened to all sorts

pauline is very dated, but not in a classic way, same with Caroline. They sound very 1980s.
I think most girls french names work in english, but be more careful with the boys ones because they can sound very feminine.

Lilou is gorgeous. I know a little half french Lilou.
Charlotte is sweet

What about Fabienne?

I dont think Clementine works brilliantly in English as everyone would be wanting to pronounce it clementyne, rather than clementeen. That could become really irritating if you have to correct people all the time

Saying that, my dd is Anais, and im always having to tell people that yes, you do have to pronounce the S.

Oh please use Clémence! I love this, but being not in the slightest bit French don't think we could get away with it (disclaimer: we did live in a Francophone country until recently, and knew a few little Clémences, so my perception of how this name would work in London may be skewed).

I also like Caroline, and don't find it dated / 1980s at all, more of an underused classic.