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?

Laurent is a good one

I like Loic...

Hello @Steoh1 we are also in France, baby boy just 6 weeks old.. we went with Hugo!
Pretty universal! 🙂 xo

Marc and Luc are both nice

Julien
Patrick
Raphael

^^ they work well in both langs

Pierre
Luc

@Fivebeanchilli

I like Loic...

I haven’t heard of that name. Thanks

@sjxoxo

Hello *@Steoh1* we are also in France, baby boy just 6 weeks old.. we went with Hugo! Pretty universal! 🙂 xo

Yes Hugo, or ‘ugo as I believe it’s pronounced, is a nice name. Unfortunately it’s already taken in the immediate family

Maxime
Thibault
Regis
Theo
Sidney
Dashiell
Jacques
Vincent
Benoit
Victor

What about Lucas? If you wanted the French pronunciation, you could even spell it Luca.

Jean-Luc?

@TheAbbotOfUnreason

Jean-Luc?

In France, Jean-Luc is a common name for our parents' generation (born in the 50s-60s) - not quite old enough to have a comeback yet.

Double-barrelled first names are pretty outdated in France now.

@Steoh1

Laurent is a good one

Yes. I also love Florian and Fabien but not sure how an average English would pronounce.

Thomas
Nicolas/Nico
Benoit/Ben
Noel

I think of Sebastien as a guy in his 40s, same with Laurent.

Recent names in our French village include Maël, Lysandre, Léo, Gabriel, Loic and Thiago.
The Jean- Hyphens are 60+ and the Sébastiens 40+.

Gabriel is lovely.

Alexandre too.

And Samuel.

I am French and know many bicultural or tricultural couples. Popular names:
Adam, Alex (just Alex, not Alexandre/Alexander), Arthur, Charles/Charlie, Daniel, Dylan, Felix, Gabriel, Hugo, Joseph, Thomas - those in bold are ubiquitous

Olivier and Oliver are popular too, but then you have to decide on a spelling (and risk misspelling or mispronunciation in either country; Oli/au lit doesn't work that well in French.)

Noa (pronounced like English Noah) is a girl's name in Spanish and possibly a bit close to Noëmi ?

OP I wouldn't worry too much. Your DS will manage as will your family.

Guy
Guillaume (le conquerant)?!

And IMHO to a PP there are plenty of hyphenated first names in first names in France but probably 30 year olds.

The Anglo French boys I know are called

Thomas
Jaques
Guy
Darius
Patrick
Robert
Paul
Stephan
Mark

Eloi
Augustin
Baptiste
Constantin
Corentin
Emile
Henri
Matisse
Olivier

Funnily enough I know three pre-teen and teen French boys called Alexandre not Alex! One of them is half-German. And one of them goes by Alex but was christened Alexandre. Agree the abbreviation works well in both languages.

I love Etienne, would work well in both countries.

Benoit, known as Ben

Thanks everyone, some great suggestions

What do people think of Mattéo?