21 French names we'd love you to know about🗼
Fresh in from Paris
Bonjour, lovely name fans! Recently I’ve been knee-deep in French names, reading all the local news stories about the most popular names around France.
Along the way, I found the most popular baby names in Paris in 2022 — a list which includes every name given to 5 or more children in the capital last year.
It's a treat of a list, blending international favorites, modern French trends, names from francophone Africa, medieval Europe, and more. Much more than I could include in a blog post.
So here are 20 names hand-picked from the Paris data because they stood out — whether because they were new to me (maybe to you too), or made me curious, or would be perfect for English-speakers to borrow, or are sadly unusable.
And for those of you thinking, “But you said 21 names,” there’s a bonus name causing controversy in the French news at the end.
Bon appetit!
Parents are reviving this name from medieval times, the original, and mysterious, form of Eleanor. It was the 86th most popular name in Paris, given to 40 girls.
Ranking at number 50 in Paris, this is a diminutive of the Arabic name Amina, used especially in West Africa. It strikes a perfect balance between simple and elaborate.
Number 54 in Paris, Brune is the French form of Bruna, so a feminine form of Bruno. It’s one of those names — like Prune — that sounds impossibly chic on a French girl, but would sadly be hard to pull off for English-speakers.
A lovely flower name that just doesn’t get enough attention in its English version, Camellia. Given to 14 girls in Paris last year.
Celeste (or technically Celestine) is one of those names that doesn’t have a well-known male counterpart in English. Happily it does in French, and it’s lovely to see it used for 16 boys in Paris. Other names in this group include Émile and Aimé.
This saintly name has had a big revival in France recently, and ranks 32nd in Paris. Its English equivalent, Cosmo, is rare, but is one we’re watching keenly. We’d bet quite a lot it’ll be making a big leap up soon.
Not just a drink, but another name showing the influence of West African communities in Paris, where it is number 92. Fanta is a form of Fatima in the Mandé languages.
Just one of those names that’s well-known in France, but has no English equivalent. It’s a botanical name, meaning the madder plant and its red dye, and ranks 58th in Paris.
We often say that if you really want your child to stand out, name them John or Mary. Well, the same is true in Paris, where the centuries-old classic Guillaume was given to only 6 boys last year. The English equivalent, William, was used 34 times! Other surprisingly rare classics include Julien (8 boys), Vincent (7 boys), and Benoît (6 boys).
Some Parisian parents are using the name of the Greek sun god in its French forms, Hélios (given to 6 boys) and Hélie (8 boys). But Elio is by for the most popular international version, ranking at number 55.
16 Parisian babies boys last year were named Lino, which is both the Italian form of Linus and short for names like Angelino. It has such a cool sound, and is the male equivalent of lovely Lina… if only it weren’t for linoleum.
The name Wolf is on the rise for English speakers, and so is its French equivalent — it was given to 18 boys in Paris last year. It has the added perk that names with a “Lou” sound are popular, so it fits right in.
This intriguing name, also spelled Mahault, is a medieval French form of Matilda, rather like Maud was in English. 26 girls in Paris got this name in 2022.
Milo meets Marlow in this boy name, which ranks at number 63 in Paris, and number 25 in France. It’s a Breton name, supposedly belonging to a medieval Welsh saint, and best known to outsiders from the port town Saint-Malo.
Given to 7 baby girls in Paris, this name came to French parents’ attention via Mazarine Pingeot, the illegitimate daughter of former president François Mitterrand. She is said to have been named after the Bibliothèque Mazarine, the oldest public library in France. Mazarine is also a deep blue color: both derive from the same cardinal’s name. If you like the sound of on-trend Mazikeen but aren’t a raging Lucifer fan, it could be an alternative.
Names with a N_LA pattern are popular in Paris: Nelya sits just outside the Top 100, and Naïla, Nayla, Nélia, and Neyla also rank. It seems to be either from the Helen/Eleanor group of names, or a diminutive of Cornelia… or both.
I’m a sucker for diminutives ending in -on, and Ninon is one of the most interesting as it comes, via a roundabout route, from Anne. It was given to 22 girls in Paris last year. Others in this style include Manon, from Marie, and Lison, from Élisabeth.
Mystery name (also spelled Soan) possibly related to the John family of names. If Soren is already too basic for you ('#namenerdproblems), may I recommend this as a worthy successor. It was used 43 times in 2022.
A classic French literary surname, from Proust’s magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. It lives on as a unisex name (given to 9 girls and 13 boys) over a century after the books were first published.
Given to 17 Parisian boys last year and pronounced “tee-djan”, this name comes from Tijaniyyah, an order of Sufi mysticism from North Africa. It’s probably too specific for most people, but it intrigued me as I’d never heard it before.
Name in the news: Artús
A topic I could talk about endlessly (besides names) is minority languages — and here’s a story that combines both.
A French couple were rejected when they tried to register their son’s name, Artús. It contains an accented letter (ú) that’s not used in French… but is used in Occitan, a minority language in the south of France. They’re appealing the case.
In 2019, a similar situation happened when parents wanted to name their son Fañch, the Breton version of Francis. They were eventually allowed to keep the tilde, so let’s hope it works out for Artús too.