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[jessiac.livejournal.com]

I do French A-level at school, and we have been studying some really interesting books over the past two years. Anyway, two particular books that we are studying, Andromaque and Phedre, by Racine, have some truly beautiful Frenchified classical Greek names. The girls' names in particular are very nice.



Aricie - my favourite of all the names (female). I think it stands for Ariadne.

Ismene (accent grave on the first 'e') - name of one of the 'confidants' in the book. Female name. reminds pleasantly of 'Imogen'.

Oenone - a bit odd, but quite a nice sound and very unusual. Also a female name, confidant to Phedre.

Hermione - greek as well as shakesperian - who ever knew? not a great fan of this name but still quite nice.



The boys are rather less underrepresented, and there are a couple of boys names which I actually think work better of girls. But anyway..



Oreste - lover of Hermione. I think this works better on girls!

Hector - fairly standard boy's name. not a fan. (dead husband of Andromaque)

Pyrrus - well, I suppose it's 'original', if nothing else. (he is the King and lover of Andromaque)

Theramene - not a fan of this for either girls or boys. (confidant of Hippolyte) But better than Hippolyte!



I have also become a fan of random French words for names. Some sound really nice. I would never actually name any children with these names, but it's interesting to see.


Ameliorera - past historic of ameliorer (to make better). I think this sounds quite pretty. Sounds a bit like Amelia.

Ferme - a little like Fearn. Present of fermer (to close).

Clavier - keyboard, in French. Perhaps for a boy?

Meillure - 'the best', Feminine. another nice girl's name.

Fleuve - 'A river'. Could be a boy's name or a girl's name.

Ouvert - 'Open' - another boy's name? 'Overte' for a girl?



What other random words make good names? Sorry for the random and rather disjointed nature of this post; I've been quite ill recently.