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 😆

If you like Mael could Manu work? Either as a name on its own or short of Emmanuel?

Its not a known name in English but it's said as it sounds so is easy for English prenounciation....

Here’s the good news, OP, if you’re French, British people will tolerate and welcome your naming style a whole lot more than they would if you were a fellow Brit! As a nation, we tend to wildly romanticise the French.

How cultured is the area in which you will be sending your son to school? He will obviously have a harder time if it isn’t and they can’t pronounce the name easily.

I wouldn’t choose Zachary, because it’s overly trendy and will probably date.

Bastien to my mind, is too close to ‘basting’ and ‘ba**d’, I’m afraid in a way that Sebastien, isn’t.

And although the inventor of the World Wide Web is a Timothy, it’s often been perceived as being slightly wet due to a Ronny Corbett programme, where he played a middle aged man still living at home, his mother would always be calling out to him “Timothy-eee” but virtually nobody will recall that because it was decades ago! But as I say, if you’re French it really won’t matter much, particularly if he’s artistic in the way the actor is.

Love Bastien, and Nathanael (prefer with the -iel ending though). How about Gabriel?

Nathaniel works well in both English and French.

And Gael will be fine too because it’s also a name British people are well familiarised with, albeit with different spellings. Nowadays, unless living under a rock or somewhat dim, most will know it’s a unisex name.

Brits are well aware of the name of the actor Gael Garcia Bernal (although Mexican and not French) and some will know of the tennis player Gael Monfils.

The OP might also like to look at YouTube for the ‘Miranda’ series where she anticipates a visit to different doctor. She steeds herself to explain her embarrassing issue to a Dr Gael, presuming it’s a female but on introduction promptly swoons, becomes visibly flustered and stutters her way through the appointment, flummoxed by the realisation that the medic is in fact, a charismatic and understanding male!!

Laurence
Paul
Romain
Claude
Gaspard
Victor
Simon
Luc

@CarmensGarden , you are ignoring the fact that the pronunciations are different. Gaël isn't said as Gail. Nathaniel is not said the same in French and English.(Nuth-AN-iel/Nat-an-yel)

I have french neighbours with a DS called eef-an. I think he's really Ethan

I think you should go with Gael.

@KirstenBlest Yes, that’s correct, Gael is pronounced differently in French than Gael is in English, but as a nation we’re familiar with reading the name already.

Just as we all learn along the way in life that Bridget (Bridg-it) in British is pronounced differently than the French way of saying it as Bree-jeet.

Gabriel in French is pronounced differently in French than it is for the unisex pronunciation of Gabriel in English. And that is pronounced in turn differently to Gabrielle.

And then there’s the English Helen or French Helene.

People through time have been happy to learn if it’s a matter of simply shaping their mouths differently to say a word they approximately already know.

Loïc

Sebastien
Louis
Jacques

I have a Nathaniel in a french speaking country (we are English). It. Is. A. Nightmare. Possibly compounded by my accent, but a nightmare nonetheless. Even Nate poses problems…

I would vote for Xavier. That was our second choice and it would have made life much easier.

Hi,
We're a bilingual (French/English) family living in England I love Leo, great choice for your DS1.
I'm afraid I don't like Timothée or Gaël; sorry, I just think they're too feminine for native English-speaking ears. (And I also think of Timotei shampoo )
I like Zachary / Zach and I think that would work well in both languages. Nathanial and Bastien (Sébastien?) are nice too but I personally wouldn't choose them because they are pronounced just differently enough that it would bother me!
How about Maxime? Max works well in both languages. It's one of my favourites.
Or Clément? Clem for short, it's easy for English speakers to pronounce.

Sounds horrible in a French accent.

Andre is a great name.

Nathaniel is my preference from your list!
I can’t see Timothee going down very well if you use the french spelling.. I think you’ll forever be correcting people. I’m not keen on Gael because of the womens name Gail which is (in my mind) quite dated these days.

We live in france so had a similar debate to you over names for baby boy. We went with Hugo because the spelling is the same everywhere and it’s old but modern. I would look for something ‘universal’. Congrats! X

What about Marek?

I met a French boy once, decades ago, French mother/Polish father.

I thought it was a lovely name, particularly the way his mother said it.

Marek is a Polish name, not French.

@CarmensGarden , Bridget isn't a french name. Brigitte is.

Gael and Gail aren't different versions of the same name

Max
Pascal
Marcel
Paul
Denis

We have recently had a French child in school called Leo.
However they weren't using the same pronunciation as is normally used in England.

We'd normally say L-ee-oa
They said L-ai-oa

Once told it was fine. Schools are used to different pronunciations and will try their best to use the correct one. I do think you have to be able to deal with some mistakes happening though.

We know French/English families with sons called

Sébastien
Quentin
Alexandre
Noah
Hugo

Quentin

Vincent

I do know that. The OP is looking for something that works both in French and English. She does not say it needs to be a French name. I also did mention the parents being of French/Polish nationality which ties in with it working in both languages i.e. French and English, as well as more broadly across Europe.

But, hey-ho .... 🙄