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?

Fascinating thread.

Posh French girls at my school 25 years ago were Christine, Letitia, Alexia, Blandine

Whereas my French exchange who was the daughter of a farm hand was Sandrine.

I know 2 girls called Iris - one is 3 one is 7

Brigitte is mid 50s for me (I know a couple)

Amandine is quite young. I know 2 aged 25-30

Nearly 20 years in France and I've never met or heard of a Maïté.

Maïté is often a nickname for Marie-Thérèse.

The Merveilles and one of the Bijous are indeed French-African

Damn I'm good

Cyrielle and Athénaïs posh, all the others unremarkable.

Chantal would have been trendy at that point, though at fifty she's probably a bit behind the curve.

Brigitte was trendy when Brigitte Bardot was young, very out of fashion now.

Maïté is indeed a nickname for Marie-Thérèse. If your friend is forty she's way behind the curve, the average Maïté would be in her seventies. THere used to be a daytime TV chef called it.

Yes Albertine like a lot of men's name's feminised with -ine is posh granny chic.

What else have I missed?

Amandine and Séverine are both very nineties. Iris is trendy now.

Christine, Letitia, Alexia, Blandine : the first two are utterly unremarkable, like Claire or Emma or something. The latter two are somewhat aspirational.

Sandrine is indeed not posh. I associate it with the working-class north.

Severine for me is Patrick Bruel's Place des Grands Hommes and it is 90s so interesting to have the name placed there so firmly. Love that song.

la belle Severine me regardera-t-elle ?

Love this thread.

Having spent way too long looking into this, I have found that the go-to guy on French given names is Baptiste Coulmont.

I see that he has published articles in English as well as French.

Now I know what I'm going to be doing next time I'm at a loose end!

He also seems to be an expert on sex shops. I'm now regretting not being a sociologist.

For me Félécie just makes me thinks of Brassens Fernande

Quand je pense à Fernande
Je bande, je bande,
Quand j' pense à Félicie
Je bande aussi,
Quand j' pense à Léonore,
Mon Dieu, je bande encore
Mais quand j' pense à Lulu,
Là, je ne bande plus.
La bandaison, papa,
Ça n' se commande pas

When I think of Fernande
It's so hard, It's so hard,
When I think of Félicie
It's hard as well,
When I think of Léonora
Good Lord, it's hard once more
But when I think of Lulu
There, it is hard no more
Getting erect papa,
That just can't be controlled

Haha, me too pimmsy.

What about Anouk? Or Clothilde?

shorted to "Manu". I loved it and always had it in the back of my mind for DC. DH just looked at me as though I'd lost the plot when I suggested it

@penstemon, assuming you're in Britain, where the national sport is football, could you possibly understand your husband's reluctance to name a child Man U?

Marvellous thread. I'd chime in with all my French names and cousins etc, but most has been covered.

To the poster who mentioned how the powers that be used to be much stricter about what was allowed or not, I remember my aunt wasn't "allowed" to register the totally made up as far as I know names of Bleuenn (in the 70s) and Younalyne (in the 80s). However, those are the names of two cousines so I'm not sure what the official recognition meant.

This is fascinating!

What about Anouk and Astrid for a girl and Maxim(e) for a boy?

pimmsy I'm not familiar with the song soncant tell whether it's a new-ish French hip hop song or an old standard.

Knowing France, I'm guessing the latter.

Maïté is an abbreviation of Marie-Thérèse, there was a well-known tv cook called Maïté who cooked stuff from the SW eg ortolans (tip, don't look for it on YouTube it is revolting).

Clear Eyes, Bleuenn is traditionally Breton, it is the same name as Blodwen in Welsh - so not invented, but I'm not surprised Younalyne was rejected. Even in the strict old days you could have regional or foreign names but getting what you wanted depended on how obstructive the person doing the état-civil in the mairie was feeling that day.

Cleareyes:

Gotta love a bit of Brassens!

Anouk: quite trendy and aspirational. Clothilde: fairly posh, probably now in her twenties or thirties. Astrid is fairly bobo. Maxime is trendy middle-class but not particularly bobo.

EmilyAlice I had a colleague tell me proudly her daughter had an English name... Fanny, apparently.

My (French) DH had an auntie called Maïté. Pronounced My - eat - ay. I've always rather liked it.

I called my baby Jennifer and the registrar decided she would allow it because I'm foreign. At school I wrote Jenny on all her stuff and she was taught to write and say Jennifer in FULL, always, as PPs have described. I wanted to call her Poppy and DH said NO, as it sounds like papy (grandad) and Popi (a little monkey in nursery age books, like clearsomespace said).

I really like Claire, Anne-Claire, Noémie.

Interesting thread.

@Madamfrog

I think Maité deserves to be shared!

Duck testicles in armagnac and sauternes anyone?

Don't know an Anouk. Astrid for me is fairly plain.

It would be Maxime for a boy. I know several under the age of 7. Don't think it's posh or common really.

How do you say Bleuenn?

Come to think of it, how do you say Blodwen?

Beautiful names, written down anyway, but I don't think I've ever heard them spoken.