French/ British Baby name

[Steoh1]

Hi,

This is my first post on here, so I hope I'm posting in the right place.

My French wife and I (I am British) are due to have our first baby in July. We live in London and intend to stay in the UK for the long term.

It will be a boy and we're in the process of trying to figure out a name. Although my wife is happy with a British, or non French name (she loves Noah) I think it would be great for the baby to have a French name. We need to consider what would work well in both countries.

Does anyone have any good suggestions?

@debwong

Boris, but pronounced Boree

I'm not sure thats a well liked name in France atm lol

We chose names with no accents and which are spelt the same in both languages, regardless of pronunciation. It's worked really well.

Some ideas
Benjamin
Dominic
Joseph
Tristan
Paul
Samuel
Thomas
Theo
Xavier

@candycane222

Absolutely love...love love...the name Anton.
Anton René ( middle name) If you use middle names like USA does.
Congratulations... I know you are excited!

Beau (pronounced Bo)

Emile

Eric

If we did end up going for a non French one, I do also like Noah, however I'm a little concerned thats its too popular. meh. I have a 6 yo who isn't called Noah because it was SO popular. I know two. One was my boss at the times son, possibly they'd have picked something else as he was born after mine but we no longer see each other and I've never met his kids so it's a non issue. The other is a friend of DHs friend. They're similar ages but live in different town and haven't ever met. They might do one day at the mutual friends invitation but again, none issue. I don't actually KNOW a single one.

More names:
Arthur
Adam
James
Victor
Simon
Daniel

I love Nicolas, nn Nico. I wouldn’t worry about people mispronouncing Louis especially if they know he is part French.

In the family ( French + lots of different nationalities)and friends we have:
Arthur
Antoine
Alban
Tristan
Jacques
Jules
Maxence
Louis x 2 (fr and USA /Australia.
Mathis
Henri
Harry
Charles
Dominic
Ruben
Alexandre or Alexander
Simon
Hugo

We also considered Sebastian, Benjamin and Olivier. We ruled out names that didn’t translate well ie Nicolas, Sacha, Benedict (I loved Benedict but it’s a girls name in French!)

Our neighbours are French and Swiss and have a son called Noah - it seems quite common here. I also like Sébastien (already mentioned) and Silas (though Brits may think it sounds like silage ). Thomas/Tomas and Nicolas/Nicholas are quite classic and work in French and English. I would avoid names like Quentin that have very different French and English pronunciations.

Noah is the perfect bilingual French/English boy's name as it's pronounced the same in both languages/accents, which is very rare. Even names which exist in both languages are usually pronounced differently (eg Leo v Léo).

If your wife likes Noah you should definitely have it on the shortlist.

I also love Max, works well in both languages and it's just a great name. I like Maxim(e) as the full name.

What surname will the baby have, do you and your wife have the same surname? If the surname is British I would lean towards a more French first name, and vice versa. (My DC have both surnames - mine is British and DH is French although his surname isn't! - so we didn't feel the need to balance it out with first names.)

I think you need to go classic, really. DH and I found that there were very few names that worked equally well in both languages that we both liked.

Names like Benjamin, Joseph, Samuel, Thomas.

Oh and Alex

NOT Beau 🤣 It's only non French speakers who think it's in any way acceptable to call your child Beau!!

I ruled out Daniel and Nicolas because the French pronunciations sounds like girls' names in English (Danielle and Nicola).

Also ruled out any names with a "th" sound in English (Theo, Nathan etc) as I like the soft "th" in English and find the French pronunciation too harsh and ugly.

It's a miracle we managed to name DS (a lot of French people struggle to pronounce his name which is a bit of a shame but we do live in the UK).

@NameChange30

Oh and Alex

NOT Beau 🤣 It's only non French speakers who think it's in any way acceptable to call your child Beau!!

I will make a note of that

@NameChange30

Oh and Alex

NOT Beau 🤣 It's only non French speakers who think it's in any way acceptable to call your child Beau!!

Yeah I ran that past my French family and friends and got the same response

Robert

@NameChange30

I ruled out Daniel and Nicolas because the French pronunciations sounds like girls' names in English (Danielle and Nicola).

Also ruled out any names with a "th" sound in English (Theo, Nathan etc) as I like the soft "th" in English and find the French pronunciation too harsh and ugly.

It's a miracle we managed to name DS (a lot of French people struggle to pronounce his name which is a bit of a shame but we do live in the UK).

I actually quite like Theo in French- pronounced "Teo" I believe

I think so far its Noah or Louis, (Theo is an outsider)

[quote PiperPosey]@candycane222

Absolutely love...love love...the name Anton.
Anton René ( middle name) If you use middle names like USA does.
Congratulations... I know you are excited! [/quote]
Thankyou! Yes Anton is nice

@NameChange30

Noah is the perfect bilingual French/English boy's name as it's pronounced the same in both languages/accents, which is very rare. Even names which exist in both languages are usually pronounced differently (eg Leo v Léo).

If your wife likes Noah you should definitely have it on the shortlist.

I also love Max, works well in both languages and it's just a great name. I like Maxim(e) as the full name.

What surname will the baby have, do you and your wife have the same surname? If the surname is British I would lean towards a more French first name, and vice versa. (My DC have both surnames - mine is British and DH is French although his surname isn't! - so we didn't feel the need to balance it out with first names.)

I think you need to go classic, really. DH and I found that there were very few names that worked equally well in both languages that we both liked.

Names like Benjamin, Joseph, Samuel, Thomas.

So the baby will have my surname but my wife's (French) surname can also be used as a firstname, so we'll use it for the middle name. Its a very French sounding name.

Louis/Luis (second spelling may help with pronunciation)
Remy
Emile
Russel
Marcel
Lucien
Lyle
Claude
Noel
Etienne
Laurent
Andre (one of my favourites)
Lowell
Maxim/Maximilien
Sacha
Adrien
Raoul
Sully
Luc
Alphonse/Alf
Julien
Merle
Lyon
Marc
Henri
Thierry
Alain
Thoreau
Rene
Emilien
Renon
Yann
Timon
Josue
Silvester
Romain
Hewett
Leopold
Joel
Rodrigue
Eric
(Please forgive my complete lack of accents!!!)

Gregoire

Lyon?! That's a city, not a name.

Yann is a good one, I think. Simple and easy to pronounce and spell.

Thanks. Is Luis not the Spanish version and pronounced slightly differently?