English/French baby names (living in France)

[Neelym11]

Looking for some ideas, feedback and inspiration please!

My husband and I are really struggling to agree on a name which works in both English and French. I’m British, he’s French and we’ll be moving permanently to France in a couple of months.

Our son is Arthur which works perfectly in the UK and in France and I don’t mind the difference in pronunciation.

Any suggestions / feedback on the below names would be greatly appreciated.

• Charlotte (husbands favourite but super popular?)
• Sylvie (my favourite but apparently very old fashioned in France)
• Margot
• Sophie
• Florence

• Louis (husband’s favourite after his grandfather.. but again very poplar?)
• Valentin (my favourite, difficult for English to pronounce?)
• Théo
• Rémy
• Raphaël

• our surname begins with M if that makes a difference! X

There's loads of girls names:
Juliette
Nicole
Jacqueline
Margot
Colette
Amelie

I like all your boys names too

Charlotte - nice
Sylvie - not keen and old fashioned in France
Margot - too popular in the UK
Sophie - lovely
Florence - ok

Louis - nice
Valentin - will be Val. No
Théo - ok as Tayo but bored with Theo
Rémy - nice
Raphaël - awful. Too many Raffa-yells in my area.

Valerian?
Dimitri?
Hugo
Sylvan/Sylvain (for a boy) - but apparently, according to wiki, there have been lots of Sylvain's in 50s
Florian (for a boy) - it's been used in Europe, St Florian is protector of firefighters, mostly been used in countries where names ending in -n would be seen as masculine
Ilyas or Elias

I like Remy.

I like Sophie, Charlotte and Florence... what about Eloise, Elodie, Delphine, Juliette, Alice, Laetitia...

Elodie
Chloe

but I do like all your girl names.

Louis I like but less keen on your others as Thèo will be pronounced Theee-oh here.

What about Beau maybe?

I think Florence is quite old fashioned at the moment in France (someone French can correct me if I’m wrong). Not that that should dissuade you if you like the name.

Arthur is very popular in France. If you were after an equivalent name you'd want to pick something else that is currently popular.

Bilingual/international names are pretty fashionable at the moment in France, particularly for girls where most of the top 20 is made up of names like Emma, Louise, Alice, Mia, Chloe, Rose etc. Literally just Google the top 100 names in France for 2023 and you'll find loads of them work in English. For boys, Louis, Theo and Raphaël are both good options, maybe also consider Hugo, Leo, Lucas, Oscar, Joseph or Gabriel?

I would advise against Sylvie, it really is dated in France at the moment. Sophie and Florence are also not very commonly used at the moment but both nice names which work well in both languages.

I would really advise against naming your child Beau if you ever plan on spending any time in France.

May I ask why? Maeva Dascanio who is French and spends time in France has called her son Beau.

Me too. Names like Amelie are old-fashioned in France.

@Spirallingdownwards , it's like calling a child Handsome or something.

Because to the French, beau is an adjective, not a name.

https://www.bfmtv.com/societe/toujours-tendance-ou-ringard-decouvrez-combien-de-fois-votre-prenom-a-ete-donne-en-2022AV-202307040593.html

This site suggests that the name Beau was given to fewer than 3 children in France in 2022 (so quite possibly zero). It is every bit as weird as it would be to name your son Handsome in the UK.

Having an older sibling with a top 10 name would make it even weirder, IMO.

I like Charlotte and Sophie. Not sure in France but in the UK Florence is the most popular of your options (top 10) and probably soon to be Margot too as it’s super trendy. I also like Sylvie but wouldn’t used if dated in France. So I think Charlotte and Sophie best of your options.

Boys names, I wouldn’t say Louis is very popular, especially compared to Theo
on your list! Unless it’s more popular in France. I love Louis, Remy and Raphael. Not too keen on Valentin.

Forgot to mention Charlotte, which is also popular. I would say Charlotte and Arthur are pretty close equivalents in terms of how popular they are and what sort of people like these names. I know a little Charlotte in France whose brother is Louis. (Not Prince George's siblings!)

Inès

Absolutely gorgeous name.

OP my son has a female friend called Remy. I love that name too.

Charlotte and Sophie are my favourite girls names

Louis and Théo are my favourite of your boys choices

They go perfectly with Arthur in the UK (sorry can’t help with how they sound in France)

Other classic names that are popular in France and go nicely with Arthur -

Alice, Chloe, Iris, Anna, Rose or Emma

Leo, Noah, Isaac

Emma or Sebastien maybe?

Disclaimer: I am not French! I lived there many years ago, so these could be totally unsuitable for all I know.

I taught a French girl called Violette. I really liked it although I don't care for the name Violet in the UK. I think the sounds were softer somehow.
No idea how fashionable or otherwise it is in France currently.

Imo you can't go wrong with Charlotte, Sophie, Elise etc. So many nice French names.

I especially like Raphael and Louis from your boys' list.

Have double barrelled names gone out of fashion in France now? Thinking about it, all the ones I know are adults : Marie Claire etc.

As I always say - popular names are usually popular for a good reason.

Eve.

Leonie
Lena
Alba
Romy
Emma
Louise

Adam
Lucas
Izak
Louis
Leon

Genevieve?

I think that quite a lot of Scottish names might fit - the vowel sounds are very similar. Just for example:
Fenella
Marion
Annabel
Jean/Jeanne/Jehane/Johann = all the same name
Helene/Helena/Eleanor
Agnes (= Ann-iss in trad Scots, Ann-yess in French)

Also international names such as Josephine, Elisabeth, Christine/Christina, Anna and so on. Not trendy but all dignified and rather nice.

I know a lot of French/English families! Some names they have used that work in both language:

Anna
Stella
Claire
Alice
Agnes
Zoe
Arabella
Sara

Jaques
Thomas
Patrick
Anton
Stephan
Robert
Louis
Milo
Nico

Kids I know with French and English parents:

Charlotte
Collette
Noemie
Remie
Lea
Matilda

Marcel
Benny
Gauthier
Remy

Raffa-yells 😂 … that really made me laugh. Thank you! It’s no longer on the list

Anna
Marianne
Beatrice

Leo
Leon
Sebastien
Gabriel