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Baby names

Names which work in French and Russian

24 replies

neonkitchen · 10/04/2022 19:39

I'm looking for boy and girl names which work in French and Russian. A name that works in English would be an advantage too.

OP posts:
Fivemoreminutes1 · 10/04/2022 19:54

Sasha
Nina
Mila
Sofia
Lara
Elena

Leo
Ludo
Andre
Nico

Soubriquet · 10/04/2022 19:55

Girl

Ana

scottishnames · 10/04/2022 20:10

Depends on how close a match you need. Children very easily get used to hearing their name pronounced slightly differntly in different contexts.
So this sort of thing, perhaps - there are lots of others:

Serge
Victor
Adam
Albert
Alexandre/Alexandr
Anatole/Anatoly
Anton
Artur
August
David
Denis
Ivan probably works everywhere

Barbara/Varvara
Valerie/Valeria
Agathe/Agata
Alexandre/Alexandra
Aline/Alina
Elvire/Elvira

UhtredsLatestPaganHussy · 10/04/2022 22:15

Maya

Victor

UhtredsLatestPaganHussy · 10/04/2022 22:18

Sorry, I see someone has already suggested Victor.

For my boys' name I'll offer Sebastian. And Leon.

Blurp · 10/04/2022 22:29

Peter works in lots of languages.
Katherine, Anna or Sofia for a girl?

UhtredsLatestPaganHussy · 10/04/2022 22:33

I think France is one of the few places where Peter mightn't be a good choice. It's the verb 'to fart'.

MinoucheSapphic · 11/04/2022 00:40

I would suggest looking through the top 100 names from France and Russia and draw up a list of names that would work in both languages. That's assuming you and your partner can speak French and Russian. If you can't, make sure you ask native speakers so you can avoid any unwanted connotations.

Off the top of my head, Anna, Maria, Eva and Sophia work pretty much everywhere in Europe. For a boy, Ivan? Not sure if French people use this name much but they would surely know of it. Also, does the spelling/pronunciation have to be identical in both languages? Because some Russian names have a pretty close (but not identical) French equivalent e.g. Alexander/Alexandre, Roman/Romain.

KirstenBlest · 11/04/2022 08:22

Yvan
Catherine/Katarina

Neverafrownwithgoldenbrown · 11/04/2022 08:23

Natalya

babyjellyfish · 11/04/2022 09:29

Anna or Elena for a girl.
Leo for a boy.

Andacherryonthetop · 11/04/2022 09:35

Natasha, Natalia, Maia/Maya, anna, Anastasia

Alex, christophe,

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 11/04/2022 09:35

Tanya (French/Russian girl I went to school with)
Natalia
Anna



Nikolai
André/Andrei
Maxim

dewl · 11/04/2022 15:42

Boris

CatsArePeople · 11/04/2022 16:44

Boy - Ivan
Girl - Jeanette

BlackLambAndGreyFalcon · 11/04/2022 16:48

The children in the Russian-French family I know are called Constantine, Antoine and Alexandra.

TheVanguardSix · 11/04/2022 17:44

Tatiana
Galina
Marina
Irina
Sonia
Anoushka (diminutive of Anna but a name in its own right).
Vera
Tamara
Kristina
Kiska
Ksenia/Xenia

Valentin
Luka
Gregori
Ivan
Rafael
Nicholas/Kolya
Anton
Filip
Fyodor
Kiril
Yuri
Danil

TheVanguardSix · 11/04/2022 17:46

FYI: My French-Russian niece and nephews are: Dmitri, Alexei, Nikolai (Kolya), and Marina. They live in France and my brother and law and his wife are Russian/Bulgarian.

Ellmau · 12/04/2022 00:32

Felix
Sasha
Andre (with acute accent)


Kira
Lara
Natasha
Natalia
Nina
Anna
Sophia

Sasani · 12/04/2022 07:21

Any name ending in "ette" is generally a name for old women. E.g Jeanette , Ginette, Claudette etc... The only one that seems OK is Juliette.

Dimitri works fine, met few. Maxime is nice.
For girls Tatiana , Anna, Elena, Sofia.

bouquetofpeonies · 12/04/2022 09:56

Russian names are very popular for French parents of boys.
Sacha
Victor
Stanislas
Vladimir
Constantin
Antonin
Dimitri (maybe less nowadays but I had a childhood friend with this name)
Valentin
Alexandre
Ivan

For girls:
Anna
Nina
I can't think of many more girls names, but most names would work well I think.

WhoppingBigBsckside · 12/04/2022 14:58

Sacha - Sacha Distel was christened Alexandre but he had some russian heritage
Victor - Victor Hugo
Alexandre - Dumas
Ivan - Yvan is a breton form of John

I'd look for a name you like. Something like Yannick might work

KayEmAy · 13/04/2022 21:27

Malia
Helena
Senna
Nora
Lena
Demi
Talia
Annika
Lexa
Sara

user1492757084 · 15/04/2022 05:44

Alexander and Elena

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