French Girl names

[BlindSpotForCats]

I'm watching Charlotte Gray and when Charlotte went under cover in France she was called Dominique.

I am a bit of a Francophile and so it made me wonder what my preferred French name would be. I love Mathilde. I loved Ghislaine until it became associated with Maxwell. I went to school with a Sandrine which I thought was magnificent.

So I am curious as to what your fave french names are?

I am not naming a baby, but thought this might be the best place to put the query in case I want to change my name by deed poll one day.

In my daughter’s French school class the popular names are the names we would think are dated, Louise, Jade, Emma (all nice names though). I particularly love Alba which is becoming very popular in our area.

The politician Yann Piat was neither male nor Breton, so you aren’t as clever as you thought you were.

Cecile
Mariette
Vivienne
Gabrielle
Caroline
Cosette
Clotilde
Claudie
Jeanne
Lilou

Her given name registered at birth was Yannick Marie and she was born in Saigon when Vietnam was under French rule. Yannick is a diminutive of Yann - diminutives ending in -ig or -ick are common in Breton.

It was a very, very unusual name to give a girl in 1949 - probably unique. In Metropolitan France I doubt whether her mother would have been allowed to register the name Yannick for her, under the naming law of the time, as it was both Breton (Breton names were almost entirely banned) and male (there were lists of approved male and female names).

@ChocolateCinderToffee , but it is the Breton form of John. Yann Piat was born in Vietnam, then a French colony.
There's an American actor called Cameron Diaz, but that doesn't mean that Cameron isn't a Scottish Boy's name.

You're the one who's not as clever as you think you are, not me.

Why were Breton names “almost entirely banned” @Chersfrozenface?

French naming law, dating from the Code Napoléon, banned any names that weren't in the French language, with very few exceptions. A matter of "maintaining the unity of the country" as a much later court put it.

So Breton, Catalan, Occitan, Alsatian, Basque names weren't allowed, unless you could argue that there were saints or other recorded historical figures with that name - and often not even then.

The centralised French state is and has been for some centuries a textbook example of cultural imperialism.

@deeahgwitch , the names allowed in France were restricted until 1993.

Thank you for replying @Chersfrozenface

Love Zelie!

Love Clotilde!

I love Garance, I think the hard G makes it sound strong.
Irene
Emelie
Manon
Celine
Gisele

Odette
Celeste
Pierra