Girls' names in France - when people say that these names are old fashioned.....

[laughorcry]

We're expecting a baby fairly soon and it looks to be a girl. We are a British family settled in France - the older kids are currently at French schools but the plan is for them all to be at a bilingual school by the age of 7ish.

Our plan for a name for the baby had been Madeleine - Eleanor and Rebecca also possibles.

When we have discussed these possible names with French friends they have all said that all three name choices are a bit old fashioned. No-one seems to have heard of Eleanor (as opposed to Eleonore), although other foreign names (William, Enzo and - bizarrely - Kevin) are quite popular.

What I can't get to the bottom of is the nuance of the suggestion that the names are old fashioned. Does it mean old fashioned like Gladys, or old fashioned like Florence in UK terms?

Does anyone have any thoughts? Particularly interested to hear from native French/bilingual folk.

Thank you for all the new thoughts. Looks like Madeleine really won't work here - I've asked a few more folk round here and am still getting the same reaction.

I've had a look at the aufeminin site, SA, that suggests that Madeleine isn't too bad (somewhere around the 300s I think) so I'm not sure what to make of the stats.

If anyone is still around, what do you think to using Eleanor (with the English spelling)? It seems to be used occasionally in France - I assume it would be pronounced El-e-a-nor in France, which would be fine, but would still be OK in the UK?

Is Eleanor more of a William or more of a Kevin?

Defo a William type name, but I suggest the French spelling rather than the English one; or you could use both, with one on the birth certificate ie the Enlgish spelling and then ofr daily life use the French spelling.

Is that because French-speaking people would not accept the English spelling or just not understand? We are not in a very cosmopolitan area at the moment, but likely to be moving to a big city in the next couple of years.

I think I would prefer the English spelling as the official one - there is still a chance that we will end up back in the UK at some point whilst the children are still youngish. Do you think that schools and so on would 'allow' the different spelling.

I am finding girls' names much harder than boys' names were!

Also, looking through the popular French baby name sites I really hardly like any of them. I was wondering whether it is a reaction to the ending of naming from a list, but there are relatively few traditional names that are popular and a huge number of what I think of as little girl names which will sound daft when the child grows up.

Just a thought about Eléonore (which I love as a name) and using the English spelling.

My cousin is Spanish (English mother) and called Catherine.

She gets called Cathy (said Catty) or Caterina but she wrote me a letter when I got married begging me not to call my children names which were difficult to spell in the country they live in.

She said she found it enormously difficult all through childhood.

I really wouldn't go for a "difficult" name.

I think Madeleine risks confusion with the cake, even if I think it is sweet.

My SIL has called her latest DD Mathilde.

I live in France and my daughter's called Eleanor but they do pronounce the'a' as a separate syllable and often they automatically add an accent to the second 'e' (Eléanore). My friend got round this by calling her daugher Elena! Madeleine is gorgeous - haven't checked if it's old fashioned or not. Again lots of Eloise, Elise, Elodie, Amelie, Laure, Camille, Mathilde, Alice, Marie, Sophie etc. Names like Sophie which work well in UK and France are always handy. Steer away from Kevin, Enzo etc - not well perceived by the French middle classes!

French dh said that he has no bad feeling towards Madeleine, but that it's an old woman's name and his great-aunt was called it. He doesn't know any young ones. And also that it's a cake :) He said Mathilde and Manon are much trendier.

If you fancy being very "socially acceptable" you could go with Aliénor, of Aquitaine fame. I think the French will consistently add an accent constantly to Eleanor. It's a William level name.

Re Jewish names for non-Jews, I've said on French name threads before that my in-laws find it hilarious that their other anglophone dil is called Rachel and therefore has a Jewish name, despite not being Jewish. And the first thing she is often asked is "are you Jewish?" and the rest of the family are asked "is she Jewish?" or "why did X marry a Jewish girl?" The French have a real "thing" about OT names being Jewish. It's not necessarily a disadvantage, but people will make the assumption that a Rebecca is Jewish.

Enzo is not quite so bad if you live in the South, and doesn't seem foreign there because lots of people have Spanish/Italian names in the South of France.

DS will be born in England, but we're moving back to France very soon, so he's getting a French name to avoid all issues with the French not recognising it or spelling/pronouncing it incorrectly. The English-speaking relatives will have to make do, as I'd rather have him sorted for school than for family occasions.

Is Sarah relly a Jewish name in France? I didn't know that when we named dd Sarah, although I was shocked to hear girls at ds' school being called Sarah. I thought it was very English. Feeling very proud of ds' name now though!

My DD is called Sarah and we are English / French / North African, with no Jewish connection as far as I know.

I think it's also a common name among mixed French / Arab families because it fits in both french and arabic.