Any name ideas for a english baby living in France.....?

[mozhe]

Ok it's not ' needed ' until october but the debate has already started....we know it's a boy, we want a name that will sound good in french and english...and we're fresh out of ' favourites ' as we already have 3 DSs and they each have x3 names each...We have a short,( english ), surname and our other children all have fairly traditional if slightly old fashioned names...Can't bear the baby name books as just too much choice !

mozhe - lummox is a poster on this thread - I was clarifying her post on Old Testament names...

Whoops, sorry Lummox.....nice name for a poster but might be a bit odd for a baby....Didn't mean to be so,( uncharacteristically ) offensive..
Anna does it matter if names are Jewish ??! Am not Jewish but they do have many beautiful names....

mozhe - it doesn't matter if names are Jewish, all I am trying to clarify is that while Old Testament names are very common in England and don't create particular cultural associations in people's minds, in France Old Testament names create the assumption in people's minds that you are Jewish. Which you might not like if you are, say, a practising Catholic or Anglican.

So, when Lummox says Old Testament names "work" in both English and French, I just wanted to added a little proviso that it's a bit more complicated than it appears at first.

I am half french and have lived in France before and have never heard anything like that ! I personally know several Daniels and Jonathans,( here in France..), and they are not Jewish...I don't know what circles you move in Anna...probably v.different to the ones I'm in.

Mozhe - don't try naming your child Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca, David etc if you live in Versailles...

I've lived in France for 15 years and was born into a Francophile family with lots of bilingual people in it... so I do have some experience too.

I don't live in Versailles...thankfully it would seem...

Maybe. Since you wanted a first name that "works" in both English and French, I assume that you want it to work culturally as well as linguistically...

dd1 is just telling me the names of her ex classmates from the french school...

Maxim
Julien
Loeic
Vincent
Gautier
Alexandre
Dillan
Martin
Bruce
Thomas
Quentin
Nicholas
Michael

I love Loeic but that is v regional.

...but there are jewish people in england and france ? Jewish people are part of both cultures.

Sure, there are Jewish people all over the world, but the way they have integrated with the local culture is often quite different. For example, lots of Jewish people in England Anglicise their surnames. That's not common in France (that may have something to do with it being much harder to change your name in France than in UK - but I have no hard data).

It's not a big deal, but it's just best to be aware of it when choosing a first name that will work in more than one culture. A bit like the social class issue - a name that sounds "upper middle class" in the UK might sound "working class" in France, etc etc. There is plenty of evidence that names affect people's outcomes in life, however much we might wish that not to be true.

A smarty pants French fluent English friend with a Russian husband (phew) has just named her baby Patrick (not sure of spelling though) as it's the same (sounding at least!) in English, French, Russian and Welsh (we live in Wales!).

I did tell her noone likes a smart arse

Also, a friend with a french mother and english father has just named her baby boy Xavier. I really like that.

New testament religious names are ten a penny here - Jean-Luc, jean-baptiste, marie, elizabeth etc etc and some of the crossover old/new testaments work - Zacharie for example. But I know what you mean about some names such as Reuben, or Samuel or some of the other names that are great and v cool in UK at moment.

songbird - Xavier is beautiful but it tends to get shortened to Xav (pronounced "zav") in English IME.

ggg - yes, Catholics love New Testament names.

I just opted out entirely when naming my daughter and avoided anything religious (since she's half Anglican-half Jewish-and not going to be brought up in any religion). For girls there are lots of Latin names that work well (all those -a suffixes...) but I'm not sure about boys. Greek names?

The name I just don't get is a supposedly religious one - sixteen (dodgy spelling but thhat is how it is said) - named after the sistine chapel. I know that the scenes are religious as is the setting, but how is the name itself religious? And ffs, Sixteen.....

ggg - yes, Sixtine. Heavy duty super-Catho ten-children with particule family living in Versailles in genteel poverty... if there was ever a name that fits a French stereotype...

ime Xavier gets 'Havvi"

Otter - isn't havvi short for Javier?

I quite like Xav too as well though. Bit Jilly Cooper though (oh God, I've outed myself haven't I?! )

I have a very dear friend called Xav... so I love it.

Okay then just to fall in with Anna's stereotypes might just go with Sixtine !...( don't worry pph...just kidding Tristan it still is...)
Seriously though Anna...you worry about what people will think a lot more than I do.

I don't think it's an issue of worrying about what people think, it's an issue of crossing cultural bridges so that you can move around the world as easily as possible... why put hurdles in your child's way if you don't have to?

Hell Anna I don't know......

Like Ralph. It's fine if pronounced Rafe but Ralf sounds like throwing up. (sorry!)

You have to add in the tease factor as well, especially for boys. I wanted to call ds a really gorgeous, different name but my dad said "you're crazy! the poor kid won't stand a chance in the playground."

A good friend of mine who's italian called her ds Kevin which doesn't go down too well in the UK (Kev - yuck!) but she doesn't know that. Nor would she care, tbh.