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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

French-English Baby Names

112 replies

Gallia2022 · 09/03/2022 10:52

Hello,

I'm starting this thread as my partner and I are expecting a child in 3 months and we are looking for French or "mixed" baby names (i.e. French names which can be easily pronounced and sound nice in English or names that are both French and English). My problem is that my partner is very picky! I have a list and would be interested to know what English-speaking people think of these names before I talk to him. I think some might be a bit too "out there" for his taste, but I would be however curious to know what people make of them. We don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl so we have to consider both:

Boys:
Remy
Pierre
Joseph
Auguste
Emile
Armand
Edgar
Mayeul

Girls:
Iris
Leonie
Beatrice
Octavie/Octavia
Adelaide
Blanche
Garance

Please let me know if you have other suggestions!

OP posts:
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yefferson · 09/03/2022 11:03

I like most of these but think Mayeul may pose some issues with pronunciation in English and I would also probably avoid names which could have diacritical marks eg Béatrice, Adélaïde.

Maybe Apolline? Or the standard Alice, Sophie, Alexandra.

TrashyPanda · 09/03/2022 11:31

Louise
Georgette
Madeleine
Marianne

Jerome
David
Vincent
Jacques

LaTomatina · 09/03/2022 11:35

Chloe
Michelle
Sylvie

Paul
Louis
Marc

WilsonMilson · 09/03/2022 11:39

Eloise
Manon

Julien
Léo

Jellycatrabbit · 09/03/2022 11:42

I'm not familiar with Mayeul or Garance.

Your girls name list is generally names quite well known in most of the UK.

Of the boys list Emile is rare here and could be mistaken for Emily (female) although people will soon get the hang of it. Edgar is v old fashioned and I'm not sure that it's come back in the way that Stanley, Alfie have. Your other choices are lovely.

BlackCoffeeInAPoolOfSunshine · 09/03/2022 11:48

Is Pierre in current use in France or is it a bit of a "dad name" ?

I think those names would all be fine in English speaking countries. Actually Emile and possibly Remy might be the most problematic for potential irritating comments because they have slightly "girl's name" vibes in English IMO.

What I wanted to say from experience of naming children growing up with family in England and multiple EU countries though is that in some ways you're better off not choosing an "international" name! We chose international names (ones which are used in all our languages) for dc1 and 2. The problem then is that everyone "knows" the correct pronunciation - but its a different correct pronunciation in each language! If you're unlucky you'll get the odd person (including precocious children) telling you that you - the parent - pronounce your own child's name "wrong" if you stick to the pronunciation from your mother tongue when in your partner's country especially when speaking their language.

Its only a minor issue but one we don't have with dc3 who's name distinctly belongs to one of his languages - people pronounce it the same in all languages or as close as they can, and don't think they know better!

My children actually automatically change their names (the pronunciation) with the language they're speaking. They've been bilingual from the start and nobody told them to, but they all did it naturally and automatically and still do now in their teens. It doesn't bother them any more than switching language does. I always pronounce their names the way they're pronounced in my mother tongue even when speaking another other language though - I feel "fake" changing the pronunciation of my children's names. Its not a big deal but sometimes I have to explain that that's how the name is pronounced in my language...

FayCarew · 09/03/2022 11:49

Boys:
Remy - Rem was a bit of an insult when I was a kid. Ratatouille
Pierre - ok
Joseph - different pronunciations
Auguste - not keen
Emile - people might think it's Emilie
Armand - not keen
Edgar - like it
Mayeul - no

Girls:
Iris - different pronunciations
Leonie - nice in a french accent but not in a uk accent
Beatrice -nice but different pronunciations
Octavie/Octavia - not keen
Adelaide - not keen
Blanche - Dierdre's mum in Corrie
Garance - not keen

EricScrantona · 09/03/2022 11:52

Girls name - Aimée.

demoness · 09/03/2022 12:15

I would avoid names with nasal vowels. A name like Garance is never going to be pronounced correctly in the UK.

Blanche is pronounced differently in English and it's rather old-fashioned (and not in the vintage sense).

The rest seem mainly fine to me, if you're okay with a different pronunciation for cross-cultural names like Iris, Adelaide, Beatrice and Joseph.

(I've met a French Mayeul - while the name is almost unknown in the UK, I don't find it difficult to pronounce. It would definitely seem "foreign" on a UK child though.)

Lagarthatheviking · 09/03/2022 12:22

Charlotte
Sophie
Clemance

Matthieu

SummaLuvin · 09/03/2022 12:49

I know an Anglo-French couple, and their focus was a name that would be pronounced the same by the French family and the British family, e.g. Alexandra. Rather than a French name which still sounds nice in an English accent even if pronunciation is slightly different, e.g. Florence.

In terms of the names you list, August and Adelaide are favourites of mine, but I'm not sure how a French person would pronounce these.

Squeakerfoot · 09/03/2022 12:52

For your boys names, I don't see any problems with how Joseph, Remy or Edgar would go down, at least looking at what names are popular where I am in London. Remy is particularly nice, Joseph is in common use and Edgar is a little old fashioned but it fits well with similar names that have had a revival. I know boys with all these names.

Pierre and Armand sound more traditionally French and I wouldn't expect them be used by families without a Francophone connection, but anyone would understand them. Auguste is similar I think.

Emil without an -e is easier to use, as with the -e it's easy to mistake for Emilie. But the name itself has a lovely sound.

I don't think that Mayeul is known in the UK.

With your girls names, Iris is very popular in my area but that might be a fluke. Leonie and Beatrice are used but are not overly common and are both lovely.

I like Octavia and people will be familiar with it, but it's unusual. Octavie is pretty but I imagine people might slip into saying Octavia by mistake.

Blanche in an anglophone context sounds like an old-fashioned name from the American South to me and would be surprised to meet a child called that. I know a little Garance in France but I've never heard it in the UK and I think it would be mangled.

In my experience people get used to all kinds of names though, so even those that seem more difficult to use here wouldn't be impossible. I also wouldn't worry about avoiding names that have accents in French and don't in English. Mine does that and it's not ever caused a problem.

BlackCoffeeInAPoolOfSunshine · 09/03/2022 12:54

SummaLuvin there are no names pronounced identically by native speakers of languages with different vowel sounds. If you don't speak both languages the difference might not be particularly noticeable, but once you have your "ear in" and are fluent in both you here the difference.

BlackCoffeeInAPoolOfSunshine · 09/03/2022 12:56

*hear not here

follygirl · 09/03/2022 13:03

Girls:

Isabelle
Céline

Thoosa · 09/03/2022 13:05

Manon is an amazing name. I wish I’d thought of it in time for DD.

RebeccaCloud9 · 09/03/2022 13:08

I love Loic

RebeccaCloud9 · 09/03/2022 13:09

I think you'd have to be prepared for English pronunciations regularly, so decide how you want it to be said and repeat! Everyone will get an unknown pronunciation in the end, but may use the anglicised version until corrected

Squeakerfoot · 09/03/2022 13:10

Other suggestions:

Oscar
Leo
Gabriel
Arthur
Hugo
Felix
Benjamin
Tobias
Jonas

Eleanor/Eléonore
Lena
Clara
Chloe
Amelie
Juliette
Alice
Romy

They won't be pronounced the same in each language but children will make the switch automatically.

Tulips21 · 09/03/2022 13:15

Collette is nice
Nicole

Tsuni · 09/03/2022 14:21

Estelle

Étienne

Gallia2022 · 09/03/2022 14:22

Thank you for much for all your comments and responses. It’s really hard to find a name that sound nice in both languages and to be honest I think my partner will end up vetoing a lot of them.

Just to clarify, I don’t mind names that are pronounced differently in both languages, I just want the pronunciation to be “easy” for English speakers. Our first son is call Arthur, I pronounce it the French way, his father pronounces it the English way and he responds to both! I used to mind about accents but I don’t anymore, I think I’ll just use them in French and not in English.

Thank you also for the suggestions, unfortunately I cannot use a lot of them as they are already in the family (like Alice/Juliette/Chloe) or have already been rejected by the father (like Louis, which seemed like an obvious choice). I quite like Oscar and Felix.

OP posts:
FayCarew · 09/03/2022 15:49

Victor

whensmynexthol1day · 09/03/2022 17:03

Oscar and felix are lovely in both languages.
I love Xavier in French, but it's been totally butchered for the English language by x men!

Elodie is another French name I love but not so sure how well it works in English

HelebethH · 09/03/2022 17:28

Boys
Andre
Phillipe
Anton
Charles
Sebastien
Leo

Girls
Celeste
Melody
Antoinette
Helena
Marianne
Josephine
Vivienne
Astrid
Flora
Violet
Margot
Thea