French girls names

[sarah30000]

We want to honour a family member who is french but we don't like their names! We thought maybe we can choose a nice French girls name instead. It needs to be one syllable, or at most a very short two. I've looked at various lists but nothing is jumping out at me. Any suggestions? Preferably not ending in A. Thank you!

French ‘r’ or a terminal sound like the last syllable of ‘Manon’ or ‘Marion’ will be horrible.

I’ve never encountered an English person who couldn’t cope with Manon. The only issue is some people on here think the last N is sounded. But that’s easily remedied.

I agree with graywall - I've posted a few times about using names from other languages often resulting in using a name that is dated.

I think some people chase fashion and some don’t. The irony being that a name that is very now will result in being dated later on.

I’ve never met a Frenchwoman under 60 called Mirabeau but it’s a beautiful make so I wouldn’t give a stuff.

@LeGrandBleu Verity? That’s not French! And Coco is a name you would give to a parrot ! Yes I know Coco Chanel , but that was a nickname

Thank you! I was about to say the same!

Vienne is also not a name. Barbe is, but is really ancient and never given anymore (think early Catholic martyr Saint), probably because it also means "beard" 😂

Thinkingsticks You have to stress the S at the end of Anaïs, here you can hear how it is pronounced in French

As a general rule, with its exceptions, you don't usually pronounce these letters at the end of the words D P S T (think of the word DePoSiT to remember it) so the word " mots" which means words, would be pronounced mo.

Inès and Anaïs are one of these exceptions.

It is a bit risky to have a foreign name. I am so fed up of having to spell up my French name whenever I order a coffee that I have now an English Coffee name. (I live in Australia and they always ask for your name when you order coffee)

I live in France and know a few Anais, it's always pronounces A-naa-ees. A-na-y is, as far as I know, an English pronunciation of the name.

I have a bug bear with names from other languages as well. I am Greek and often have to correct people with respect to meaning and pronunciation.

There was a poster recently who wanted to give an Ancient Greek name to a girl and went with a pronunciation no longer used in Modern Greek but which means 'son' or 'maybe' depending on the stress. The actually Ancient Greek name has evolved to something she did not want to use. Bonkers.

Celine? If you liked Celeste.

And please do not pick Sidonie !! she is a famous character in a comic series called Bob et Bobette - Spike and Suzy in English- the poor Sidonie is quite ugly and everyone makes fun of her - lack of - looks . She also has massive hysterical tantrums, a massive crush on another character who treats her like shit, and mostly cleans the house.

Every time I read or hear Sidonie, I think of the comics.

Before you pick Céline, it is the name of a sadly famous author Louis-Ferdinand Céline (which acts as the surname in this case, even if his real surname was another) .
I can believe we had to endure his books at school when he was a proven pro-nazi, nazy spy, antisemite, racist and misogynist. No matter how innovator he was, he was une merde.

I am not sure Céline as a girl name can ever be separated from Céline the racist novelist for my generation (50ish)

Tatiana, A 60+ yr old's name would probably be safe, but a pop star/celebrity might not.

Does it really matter? If you are happy to have a child named Beyonce or Katniss or Jon-Snow or whatever. It is the child who will have to live with the name.

Lou
Leila
Nadège
Solange
Aurore
Zoe
Elsa
Garance

Zoe is Greek, it means life

Sibylle
Clémence
Romane

@graywall that's a really helpful list, thank you

I also like Lilou and Odile, are these appropriately french? Seems a bit of a minefield!

Lilou is trendy, Odile is old-fashioned (I would say) - albeit very French.

Leila is not French, it's Arabic (lovely though)

Lilou isn't really a name, more of a nickname, but seems to be cropping up as a first name quite a bit recently

Odile is old-fashioned but could probably come back

I've met one Lilou at creche, there is one in our school and one in DD's riding club, so it seems popular at the moment.

Gabrielle
Aurelie
Laurence
Armelle
Alinne
(I don't know how to put accents on the relevant letters)

No one suggested Simone yet? Gorgeous.

I think using Manon in the UK is daft, sorry. Odette is amazing.

I’ve never encountered an English person who couldn’t cope with Manon. The only issue is some people on here think the last N is sounded.

That's my point, they pronounce it 'Man-on', as in 'There's a man on fire, get the fire extinguisher'.

Manon is also used as a Welsh name. MAN-on

@SillyUnMurphy, search for Alt codes for whatever device you use.

That's my point, they pronounce it 'Man-on', as in 'There's a man on fire, get the fire extinguisher'.

🙋 Guilty! I have never come across this name before, best guess would have been Man-ONN.

I promise I'm not overly stupid or uneducated, honest.

Elodie and Aurélie have always been my favourites.

Elodie and Aurélie have always been my favourites.

nice in French accents.Just ok here.
Aurelie would Orraly. No.