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 😆

Jérôme is a good one.

I knew a Tanguy once.

Timo is a Finnish name, my friend with a Finnish Mum is called that. People often think that he's telling them he is christened Tim and it's a nickname like Jonno, Dave-o etc as adding "o" is a common English way to turn a name into a nickname, very popular in Oz/NZ.

I think you're overthinking it with the names being "taken" by others, and things like not picking Emmanuel because of Macron.

Bastien is one of my favourite boys' names ever. I love it.

It's a shame you don't like Loïc. I don't usually like matchy sibling names but 'Leo et Loïc' is very cool.

Maxence?

PS Timothée is lovely but the English Tim has quite weak, wet connotations for me. I still hear '-nice-but-dim'.

Gaël won't work, because the ë would be replaced by e.
It will be said as Gay-ul or Gay-elle

I knew a Tibault recently at work and it seemed to work for all his British and American colleagues.

Tristan is a good suggestion by pp.

@Ihavehadenoughalready yes I like both spellings of Zacharie/y but not a big fan of Joseph and Antoine (who is also a good friend and colleague so would feel a bit weird to me).

I had never heard of Nazaire as a given name! Only know it because of the city of St Nazaire in France.

@dream28 sorry, I don’t like any of these. Cedric was very popular for my generation so I had loads of them at school.

@HaveringWavering Tanguy is a nice name but I think it would be weirdly pronounced in English. There is a film called Tanguy which has also kind of forever associated the name the main character (in France it has almost become a noun now after the film!). Timo sounds nice, I like it but sounds too much like a nickname to me. I would prefer Timothée but Timo would be a nice nickname for it.
also, I have a big family, and I really can’t see myself giving my son any of my siblings/cousins/nephews name, I am in regular contact with the majority of them and it would just feel weird to me really. Emmanuel is also because I have a cousin named Emmanuelle… so definitely no to me.

@KirstenBlest possibly. We tried this with friends and they didn’t seem to know what to do with the ë, and didn’t change their prononciation.

Tristan and Thibault are heavily used already in our close family/friend circle. So no

but thanks again everyone, still very useful

Sacha, short for Alexandre
quite unusual in the UK, but not unheard of.
not Ali G

How about Julian?

Sorry not a fan at all of Julian or Sasha. Plus I have a Sasha in the family and Julian prononciation is too different in both languages. But thanks! I think we will stop thinking about it a bit and get back to it later with a fresher mind.

Max?

Gerard?

Alexandre?

Reuben?

Ernest?

Mathieu?

I know you're in Edinburgh rather than Glasgow, but even so I'd be careful about names like Xavier and Vincent. I'm afraid sectarianism still raises its ugly head from time to time and there's not sense in feeding it.

Our son is Gabriel and his name has worked well in the different countries we have lived in. Everyone is familiar with it and we have always had a positive response. We didn't live in France but we lived in Germany for 6 years and the USA. It's a well-known name in many countries, languages and cultures.

Thibault was one of my daughter's best friend's in Germany and he was always called Tibby!

Leander was another name used in Germany. Also we had a young friend Loris but I believe that is Italian.

Nicholas?

Constantin
Armel
Laurent (Larry)
Raoul
Albert

Emile is currently very popular in Belgium (especially when you add in the Flemish spellings like Emiel), so wouldn't be surprised if it is also coming back in France in Belgium it is such an old name it's far enough removed not to be 'man in his sixties' ish.
Felix, Arthur are also popular but i think they are on your can't use list?
These don't all sound the same in both languages, but I have a name that doesn't sound the same in the two languages I speak and it's absolutely not an issue. You just have a school version and a home version.
Levi, Hector, Elliot (various spellings), Otis, Maxim, Alex, cyril, Mathias, julien, Isaac, Olivier, Arno/Arnaud, Otto, Leandro/Leandre/Leander, Len, Achille, Cyril, Jules?

Oh I forgot Clovis. A French woman living in an English speaking country named her son that. I had never heard it before, but it's easy to say in English and sounds similar.

Maurice

Joël?

You mentioned not using Gabriel because it is your brother’s name but depending on how you feel about your brother it could be a lovely compliment to him?

I also love Nico and think it is a very lovely sibling name to Leo, similar with Arlo?

a name you never hear now but is lovely is Richard, and I think that would work in both languages?