I’m 21 weeks pregnant with my first baby, we just found out it’s a boy. My husband is French Canadian and I’m American and the baby will be raised in Montreal, so we’re looking for something that works in both French and English. The last name sounds like [name]Bear[/name]-ee-toe. We have a few ideas floating around, [name]Leo[/name](prounounced in French, [name]Lay[/name]-o, also my deceased grandfather’s middle name), [name]Gabriel[/name], not sure how the French prounounce that one…[name]Arthur[/name](French prounounce this Are-tour as far as I can tell). The only feedback we’ve had so far is that the end of [name]Leo[/name] and the last name is too similar. Suggestions and comments on the current ideas welcome! Thanks!
I’m not sure I like [name]Leo[/name] because as you mentioned it is a little sing songy with the last name. I think you could use [name]Leon[/name] (easy to say in french) or [name]Leopold[/name] (not sure about how this translates) and get to [name]Leo[/name] as a nickname very easily. [name]Leon[/name] [name]Bear[/name] ee toe has none of the rhyming quality that [name]Leo[/name] has with your last name.
For French Names:
I like [name]Marcel[/name] [name]Bear[/name] ee toe
I like [name]Gerard[/name] [name]Bear[/name] ee toe (very masculine)
I like Francois [name]Bear[/name] ee toe ( i’d like to meet a little Francois)
I also second your [name]Arthur[/name] I am thinking of using it myself.
I love [name]Arthur[/name]; very classic and dignified. The second syllable has a slight yuh sound to it, like “fury.” I’m more familiar with what’s popular in [name]France[/name] than what’s popular in Québec, so I’m not terribly confident on making suggestions without knowing a little more of your style.
Léo is quite handsome but yes, I agree it might sound sing-songy with your last name. [name]Gabriel[/name] would be pronounced “gah” rather than the English “gay” sound, and it’s also quite handsome, in my opinion.
[name]Gabriel[/name] in french is pronounced similar to [name]Gabrielle[/name] in English. Ga-bree-[name]EL[/name]. Personally, I love the name [name]Gabriel[/name], but only pronounced in English. I find it sounds to feminine in french.
[name]Leo[/name] is a great choice, although it does sounds a little sing songy with your last name. I don’t think it is that bad though and shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
I love [name]Arthur[/name].
I live in a bilingual community where names that easily pronounced in french and English are quite popular, here are some suggestions:
Thanks everyone! Some of my favorites out of those are [name]Marcel[/name], [name]Louis[/name], [name]Henry[/name], [name]Micah[/name], [name]Samuel[/name] and [name]Benoit[/name]. It’s so hard to think about narrowing down such nice names, I never realized how hard this would be!
I love [name]Benoit[/name]–I think it travels well and it’s not crazy popular in the bilingual city I live in. I think it’s very elegant and sophisticated. We almost chose [name]Louis[/name] for our second son. [name]Louis[/name] is very, very portable.
I might have a few reservations about [name]Henry[/name] in a French-speaking area. If you like the French pronunciation, I would just spell it [name]Henri[/name] so you get that pronunciation more consistently from both French and English speakers. My husband is a native French speaker and has some trouble pronouncing the H sound. So [name]Henry[/name] sometimes comes out as 'Enry. Not a huge deal, but something to consider.
Good luck and congrats–boys are lots of fun And you have some time to find the perfect name.
[name]Simon[/name] might be a name you’ll both like. I actually know a bilingual family (french mom, english dad) with a little boy named [name]Simon[/name].
I like a lot if the suggestions here. What about [name]Emile[/name], [name]Thomas[/name], or [name]Nicolas[/name]? [name]Gabriel[/name] in French is like the girls name [name]Gabrielle[/name].
[name]Olivier[/name]? I think it sounds fabulous with your last name
My choice from your list is [name]Arthur[/name]. You could use [name]Leo[/name] as a middle name.
I’ve always like [name]Marcel[/name] (my grandfather’s name), with nn [name]March[/name] in English.
Names that have the same, or almost the same spellings in both languages include :[name]Nicholas[/name], [name]Alexandre[/name], [name]Charles[/name], [name]Daniel[/name], Théodore, [name]Armand[/name], [name]Julien[/name], [name]Denis[/name], [name]Guy[/name], [name]Mathias[/name], [name]Paul[/name], [name]David[/name], [name]Augustin[/name], [name]Martin[/name], [name]Adam[/name], [name]Vincent[/name].
Other options could be names like André or [name]Claude[/name] which are more French but not unheard of in English. I like [name]Pierre[/name], which is a classic in [name]Quebec[/name] but easy to pronounce in English.
A lot of the names I listed have been trendy in [name]Quebec[/name] at one time or another in the last 50 years, so may be rather dated …
Great suggestions! [name]Raphael[/name] and [name]Thomas[/name] are also on our list…[name]Simon[/name] I love, but it’s my husband’s cousin, [name]Emile[/name] I like, but wonder if we ever moved to an English area if he would get teased that it was [name]Emily[/name] or something. It was also our horrible wedding dj so bad association there haha. [name]Theodore[/name] is super cute, but one of my friends has “called” it as they say. I suggested [name]Oscar[/name] to my husband, and he said, “like the guy in the trash can?”…soooo that’s a no go. I also love [name]Elliot[/name], but it’s my husband’s bosses baby so he thinks it would be too weird. So exciting!
And you have some time to find the perfect name.