what girls' names do the French middle classes turn their noses up at?

[NatureAbhorsAHoover]

What would the haute bourgeoisie think of as a tacky/trashy name for a baby girl? I speak french but have no idea what sounds déclassé to a French ear.

Not looking to vilify; am interested in the tonal sounds, themes and signifiers that surely exist just as much in France as here?

Miracle you're all solidly middle class and Victoire's mother is a social climber

Up to 1993 you could call your children anything you liked in France but you couldn't register them under a name that wasn't on the approved list.

Even this year parents found they couldn't register their son with the name Fañch because, according to the fonctionnaires, it had a foreign character in it. Well, ñ may not be a French character, but it exists in Breton orthography.

My cousins seem to be calling their kids Breton/Basque/Occitan names, despite not really coming from any of those areas.

DH is BCBG. His family all have very traditional names - Anne Marie, Pierre, Thomas, Benjamin, Vincent, Cecile, Clotilde, Sigolene, Leticia and Felicia.

Children - Leopold, Augustin, Isidore, Thibault, Celestine etc

Oooh I know a BCBG Sigolène with that spelling. I wonder if it's the same one?

I'm a non BCBG Clotilde.

CheesyWeez we have a local restaurant called Chez Fanny. It is very popular with Brit tourists. 😀

We have a Côme in our village. I guess it is Cosmo, but is it posh? Also my neighbour has Lysandre. I keep wanting to sing The British Grenadiers (showing my age).

There is a hairdresser not too far away from me called Fanny Coiffure. And a decorator called Le Vieux Pouf. And a builder called Moron Constructions. I expect they feature in many British holiday photographs.

What about Clovis?
I know a Lucien, known as Lulu... perhaps he is the one that turned off Brassens?

Côme, lysandre and Clovis are all posh.

There was a girl on DD's French exchange called Fanny. She stank to high heaven and was known to all as Smelly Fanny.

My mother is Jeanne-Yvette.

What does BCBG mean? Google us giving me the literal translation, but what does that actually mean?

And the name Bernadette? It’s French, but I’ve only ever come across people with Irish roots with that name - the St Bernadette connection. Is it used in France?

What about Isabeau?

I knew a jean-baptiste he got teased by the English kids!

I wanted to call DS Clovis, but got vetoed.

How would French middle/upper classes perceive the girls name Luna?

I had a French colleague who was in his fifties ten years ago, called Yvon. I haven't spotted that name on this thread yet.

This is such an interesting thread! My dad is half French so I have lots of family but never thought about their names or social status!
Sorry if I've missed the point of the thread, and it isn't about social class at all.

I would say they are lower middle class, I have teenage cousins who are called Maxence (shortened to Max) and Margaux, their mother in her early forties is called Marie-Laurence but has never been known as anything but Muffet, her husband is Philippe and her brother is Oliver. Also have Marie-Claire (my great aunt) who is in her 70s, Rolands, Catherines, Nicoles, Bernards! My gran's sister was called Adrienne but sadly died at 13, I always loved that name but don't know of it's social status, and they always nicknamed her BO, which isn't particularly nice in England ha! Gran's name was Diana Alice, they called her Di, maybe it was the half-English side that made them shorten the names?

I love French names, especially Clementine and Hugo which of course are pretty big over here too! DH is coming round to using a French name for our DC1 :)

BCBG stands for 'bon chic bon genre'. Sort of quite traditional, bourgeois, upper middle class. Not especially fashionable. Unless that's changed since I was a child - I'm quite anglified nowadays!

I always think of BCBG as the equivalent of Sloaney. But have not lived in France for ages so prepared to be contradicted!

Some interesting Breton names I have come across -
Loïc
Yvonnick
Gwendal

Soazig
Annaïg
Leaning
Rozon

Yes that's not a bad equivalent. Prince George wears quite BCBG clothes I guess!

Sorry, Rozenn