Little list of French names.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

I love thinking about names and when I saw this community I thought that maybe some will enjoy a list of names I say everyday. So here is the list of my classmates. I must admit that most of them are quite usual names for France (Apart from the ones with names from another origin) but I may edit and add some more names from other classes if people are interested .

Girls
Fleur (Flower)
Joséphine
Elsa
Héloise
Justine
Lucie
Léna
Eva
Caroline
Mélanie
Lydie
Aminata (Foreign name)
Angélique
Manon
Camille (unisex, but way more popular for girls)
Soraya (Foreign name)
Mailys (Can also be written Maélis/Maélys)
Elodie

Boys
Vincent
Mathieu (Matthew)
Thimothée (Timothy)
Lionel
William (Foreign name, for the French at least)
Paulin (Similar to Paul, female equivalent is Pauline)
Lucas
Taieb (Foreign name)
Benoit
Alexandre (Yup and not Alexander. Yay for letter switching)
Olivier (Oliver . Means Olive tree , literally)
Tom
Amir (Foreign name)
Bastien

Comments

[avec-bonheur.livejournal.com]

I like French Alexandre over Alexander.

If I were to read Alexander in French I'd pronounce it as "ah-ley-zon-dey" which sounds pretty silly, imo.

[waitingonsunday.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Mailys/Maélis/Maélys before, and am intrigued. How, exactly would you pronounce it? My best guess is something similar to an English MY-lee or MAY-lee.

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

Funny you noted that Camille was unisex. I always think of it as a girls name, but in real life the only Camille I've known was a man.

[okay-here-i-am.livejournal.com]

I really like French names, they sound very sophisticated. I don't think there's any of these that I don't like :)

In particular, Bastien, Olivier, Mathieu for boys; and Heloise, Lucie, Lena for girls.

(I apologize that I don't know how to do the accented letters on my keyboard...)

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

William and Josephine (sans accent) are both on my list.

Other than that, I like:
Elsa
Heloise
Lena
Lydie
Camille
Elodie
Benoit

Sorry, I don't know how to do accents!

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite French girl names is Agnès. I love how it is pronounced in French. Not so much in English.

My brother is named Matthew. My mother (who loves the French language and has a huge desire to go to Paris someday) wanted to spell it Matheiu but his father wouldn't allow it.

My first name is Aimee (more French influence).

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

I like:

Fleur
Joséphine
Elsa
Héloise
Lucie
Léna
Eva
Caroline
Mélanie
Lydie
Camille (unisex, but way more popular for girls)
Mailys (Can also be written Maélis/Maélys)
Elodie

Vincent
Mathieu (Matthew)
Thimothée (Timothy)
Lionel
William (Foreign name, for the French at least)
Paulin (Similar to Paul, female equivalent is Pauline)
Lucas
Benoit
Alexandre (Yup and not Alexander. Yay for letter switching)
Olivier (Oliver . Means Olive tree , literally)
Tom
Bastien

[adamantplatypus.livejournal.com]

Isn't Guillaume the French version of William?

[my-little-voice.livejournal.com]

love:
Fleur (Flower)
Caroline
Camille
Lionel
Olivier

[ditzyfish.livejournal.com]

I really like Soraya. Means "Princess" in Persian I think.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

Yes well it usually sounds silly when french try to speak english. They will also probably say it with a really think sounding "Air" at the end too maybe. Either way Alexandre is better for the French at least :)

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

We really but the accent on our ... well accents .While my friend Mailys is pronounced May-lis the most common version ,Maélys, is way more like Mah-EH-lis.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

I thought that it would be a nice little information. It is true that it is considered as a girls name. In fact I've never met a boy named Camille and I would be a bit put off for a second if I did. There is however at least 10 Camille in my year at least. It's a VERY popular name for 17 year old kids these days it seems.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

Hehe I know that a lot of anglophones enjoy French names. While I have an Irish/American name, Angelique is my second name and I really get a kick out of saying it with my American accent.

(No worries , I also have a qwerty and I had to copy/paste all the accents in :D)

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

Those are pretty much my favorite names from the list too. Benoit is probably the less common in that list as it starts to be an "old" name.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

Ooh Aimee is on my list. "Loved" it's such a pretty name and can be pronounced Amy to fit in an English speaking country. I ounce met a Waitress in the US named Amy but that wrote her name Aimee for the exotic touch.
Sadly it's not really given in France anymore :S I think the male version Aimé was more common.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

Oh maybe , I have no idea. It's quite possible though since he's the only William I've ever met in France.

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

I believe that the Soraya I know is Moroccan so it probably has a different significance in her family but it's really nice it can be used in Serbian too. Doesn't always turn out good though. I knew someone named Chétane. In his language (Can't remember what it was. I think he was either persian or Indonesian) had a really nice significance (Forgot that too), the pronunciation meant Devil in Arabic, and I have a lot of Arab-speaking kids in my school .Kinda tough or him :s

[waitingonsunday.livejournal.com]

Either way, very pretty.

[lilacmermaid.livejournal.com]

I like:

Justine
Léna
Caroline
Mélanie
Soraya
Mathieu
William
Alexandre
Bastien

[elephantus45.livejournal.com]

I love the name Olivier. I named my rabbit that :P (When I was 12..hehe)

[laminy.livejournal.com]

Fleur is absolutely one of my favourite names. As is Elodie.

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

Yes it is.

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

Manon is one of my favorites, but if I ever moved back to the US from France I fear it would be pronounced badly all the time.

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

I probably wouldn't use a French name though being part French (my great grandmother only spoke French), but I do like French names (I blame hockey, LOL).

I like:
Elsa
Lucie
Léna
Eva
Lydie
Mathieu
William
Lucas
Alexandre



Is Olivier actually pronounced "Oliver", or were you just saying it's the equivalent to "Oliver"? Because I've always heard it oh-lihv-ee-ay. (But maybe that's because that was a last name?)

[ashesflying.livejournal.com]

No it's the equivalent. You've got the right pronunciation :)

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

Yay me! :)