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 😆

Henri?

Also, when I hear Timothée as an English person I just think of Timotei shampoo!

*the way that you have spelled Nathaniel sorry

Use Gael, it's a lovely name. I can't imagine people would tease your Gael for being like Gail anymore than a Mark would be teased for being similar to Mary.
Leo and Gael sound lovely together!

Thinking of the Auld Alliance what about Stuart?

Thomas
William
Jack

I think you're better off with something that obviously looks French whose pronunciation can be managed by English speakers (e.g. Pierre) than something that is spelled the same but pronounced differently (e.g. Guy, David)

Montague?

I actually love Timothy. My DS goes to school with one.

What about Dominic?

Thank you everyone for the huge response! A lot of lovely names suggested but many I can't use as already 'taken' by family or close friends (like I love Gabriel but it's my brother's name!) and many are great in the UK but super old fashionned in France (like George, Robert, Philippe... ) think super popular in the 1950s-60s so definitelly tinted to me as being old men's names. I have three friends roughly my age named Rob here in Scotland, but still would feel very weird in French, and feels too old to me.

Thanks for your input on Gael, still very divided opinions haha, I still have much doubts about using it in the UK. 4 months left to think about it!

Also, would you say that Tim is definitely old fashionned here? I still love Timothée and Tim would be easy to go with here if he doesn't want to bother using/explaining his full name. How would that sound? Does everyone has an old uncle Tim around? Or is it still nice for a baby/boy?

Thanks so much again, sorry I don't respond to everyone personnaly, but it helps a lot!

I think Tim is nice, it’s not so common now but doesn’t feel out of place like Gary or Nigel.

hahaha I had totally forgotten about this brand! Well maybe that would help with the pronounciation 😁

I agree.
Love Gabriel, but the French pronunciation is like the English pronunciation of the girl's name, Gabrielle.
I would avoid Nathan and Ethan as they will be pronounced completely differently too.

How about Dominic, Hugo, Louis, Julian/Jules, Olivier, Henri?

Xavier

I love Maël too, but I was thinking it would be the the same problem as for Gael, like it would pronounced as 'male' or 'mile'. Malo is 'taken' and I like Yann a lot (I am very attached to Brittany in France, and I love Brittonic names), but all the Ians I know in Scotland are my dad's age, so it doesn't feel as appealing now.

Guy ?

Tim 'nice but dim' is an unfortunate popular culture reference from a few years back - but might not be relevant now - it was 15/20 years ago.

If Yann is pronounced how I’m assuming it is, then I wouldn’t even make a connection with Ian personally. I really like it.

Yes, Yann, is the Brittonic version of Ian. Same name, different spelling. In french it would be pronounced with a more open A, something like Yah-nn (like in Yahoo I think). but he would still have to correct people on how to spell his name I guess.... Gosh! It was so easy for our first son!!

I like Gael but it will get Gail a lot.

In your position my choice would be Beni

Living in Scotland, you need to be aware that a "Gael" (pronounced like the wind, gale) is a person who speaks Gaelic. You say you like Breton names so perhaps there is a connection between Gaelic and Breton culture (I know the Bretons have bagpipes for example!). But if it is not connected, be prepared for people to think it is appreciation/appropriation of Gaelic culture.

That's on top of the confusion with Gail.

"Tim" is not in any way an old man's name in the U.K. In Scotland everyone definitely has an old uncle Jim (or Jimmy) but not Tim/Timmy. That said, it's not been popular for children for the last 20 years or so. I'd say it's most common amongst men in their 30s to 50s.

I know several Yanns and I’ve never twigged the Ian connection. They all pronounce it to rhyme with fan, not like Yahoo… It does get mistaken for the scandi Jan though. And the ones I know are all 35-elderly so probably my bias but I don’t know if I could see it on a baby or toddler!

Love Timothée/Tim though, I think it’s definitely due a come back.

Our boy list was Gabriel, Louis, Christophe, Philippe, Hugo, Sebastian.

Yes, I sort of liked this second meaning too actually as a kind of 'tribute' (that is a bit too strong) to our adoptive country. Brittany shares strong cultural associations with other celtic nations but I think the language is closer to Welsh/Cornish. There is no clear origin of the name Gael in France but it is often refered to as meaning 'an Irish man' in Brittonic. And thanks for your input on Tim!

Celtic names are by far what works the best (same issue in our house so had spent quite a bit of time looking too).
What I really liked was Tristan, Thomas, Killian.