Boy name that works in French and English

[FollowTheNorth]

Hi all, and sorry for the long message!

I am pregnant with our second boy and we are really struggling with name ideas… Husband and I are both French, living in Scotland with no intention to leave, so our sons will likely be raised here, but we regularly go to France to visit family and friends, so we need a name that works in both languages. Four our first son, we instantly loved Leo. It works in most European languages, pronounced fairly similarly in English and French, soft sounding… but for our second one we feel like we have exhausted all the forum threads! We keep turning around the same names, and most names we like are already taken by close friends/relatives (think Theo, Noah, Paul etc.)

We have two names we really like, but they are more French than broadly European and I am worried this would just mean he would have to spell/repeat his name all the time. May I have your opinion on:

• Timothée (we much prefer it to Timothy, which we feel is a bit old fashion now in the UK). The American actor Timothée Chalamet is becoming quite popular so it may help making the French version of the name be more known here too… also he could use Tim but I feel Tim is a bit old fashion too. What do you think?
• Gael, which is pronounced Gah-el. It is our favourite choice, and people would instantly know how to pronounce or spell it in France but I am worried it will be read as Gail (one syllable) all the time here. As Gail is clearly a feminine name, it could cause teasing at school… but am I pushing it? Would it actually be ok? My name is very French, but sounds like a more English name and people always get my name wrong (like even in emails, people respond and ‘correct’ my name like I couldn’t spell my own name). It’s quite annoying so not sure I want to inflict that to my son… but we love the name so much!

our other ideas are Nathanael, Bastian, and Zachary but we are not 100% convinced yet. We are not big fans of William, Harry, Charlie, Jack or other names in the top 100… either already taken by close friends or family or we just don’t like them.

any help would be much appreciated!! We had a name for a girl before I got pregnant with our first son… it would have been much easier 😆

I love Gael, but would have pronounced it more “Guy-el” (as in “guy” rhymes with “eye”). I think when he corrects people they would probably pronounce it like that or like Gal. It’s tricky in most British accents to make the quick ah-eh sound. Not impossible though and the people who know him will get it right.

Honestly I’d still be tempted despite that as it is a lovely name. And you can’t predict where he’ll end up living. My bf (French) and I (English) live in Spain so our very common names get mangled on a daily basis. It’s a minor annoyance but really no big deal.

Patrick
Paul
Luc

Oooh yes - I love Gabriel

What about Émile. Oliver/Olivier. Mateus is one I really like. Henri. Yves. Étienne. Félix.

Nathan/Ethan
Yannick
Emmanuel/Manuel
Loïc
Arlo

Xavier
Such a great name. I don’t know if it sounds old fashioned in French though.
i love it, sadly was vetoed by dh. Arse.

Francois - Frankie/Frank
Marc
Lyam
Raphael -Raffy

Hugo
Frankie
Emil
Albert
Remi

One of my French colleagues is called Kevin.

Thomas

I love Gabriel, Étienne, Xavier and Sebastian. Beautiful names I would've loved but I'm not French so couldn't really justify Étienne!

I offer you Joel/Joël, though. My actual favourite boy's name.

Jack/Jacque
Noël
Beau
Oliver
Gabriel/Gabe
Henri
Lucien

Oliver?

Don't worry about people spelling your name wrongly. I live in France and they give me an accent where there isn't one. At 66 I can spell my bloody name!

Sorry OP, I'd think you were talking about something else entirely if you mentioned a Gael.
The Gaels are an ethnolinguistic group of people native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. They speak Gaelic, or used to.

Thomas is a good shout because there are very few children in the UK now with that name versus previous years.
Alex can work anywhere
Oscar is really good in both, although I think it is quite popular now.
I have a friend who is half American and half French whose son is called Axel.
Guy - different pronunciations but works in both countries.
Vincent/Vince is pretty unusual now too. Remember that what sounds old and weird today can be super fashionable in twenty years, so go weird and slightly out of fashion to future proof!

Jules

Perhaps Maël. Or Malo; Yann.

I love Emile

Hugo

Lucas?

Although it will automatically be pronounced differently in the UK

Luca would ensure no pronunciation of the s

Hugo
Benjamin
Thomas

Clement

Timothee Nathaniel and Zachary are all names that would work in the UK. Although The way that Nathaniel is different to the English version of the name and your child might have to correct people his whole life.

I think Gael and Bastian are very French and would be considered unusual in the UK.

What about louie/louis? It sounds French to me and I think louie and leo sound really cute together.

If we had another boy (we need French / English workable names too), we’d choose Guy.

Good luck!