What are your favorites? I don’t want anything too foreign-sounding or difficult to pronounce (we’re in OK). We both like [name]Marguerite[/name] and I love [name]Clementine[/name] (would go with the -tyne pronunciation, though) and I like that they both have a long history of use in the US. What are some other usable French names for boys or girls?
Amile
[name]Chloe[/name]
Noame
[name]Andre[/name]
Oh yay, I love French names. My Grandparents are both Francophones so I may be a bit biased with what I find passable, but my favorites are:
Fille:
[name]Delphine[/name]
[name]Amandine[/name]
[name]Adelaide[/name]
[name]Celeste[/name]
[name]Celestine[/name]
[name]Elodie[/name]
[name]Eloise[/name]
[name]Victoire[/name]
[name]Amelie[/name]
[name]Clarisse[/name]
[name]Claudie[/name]
[name]Melisande[/name]
[name]Mathilde[/name]
[name]Fleur[/name]
[name]Ghislaine[/name]/Ghyslaine
[name]Giselle[/name]
[name]Justine[/name]
[name]Yvonne[/name]
[name]Leonie[/name]
[name]Lucie[/name]
[name]Margaux[/name]
[name]Marielle[/name]
[name]Rosalie[/name]
[name]Emmanuelle[/name]
[name]Sabine[/name]
[name]Sylvie[/name]
[name]Gar[/name]çon:
[name]Adrien[/name]
[name]Julien[/name]
[name]Damien[/name]
[name]Andre[/name]
[name]Antoine[/name]
[name]Gaspard[/name]
[name]Gerard[/name]
[name]Lucien[/name]
[name]Denis[/name]
[name]Aubin[/name]
[name]Sebastien[/name]
[name]Blaise[/name]
[name]Claude[/name]
[name]Didier[/name]
[name]Jerome[/name]
[name]Henri[/name]
[name]Leon[/name]
[name]Dorian[/name]
[name]Emile[/name]
[name]Evrard[/name]
[name]Lionel[/name]
[name]Luc[/name]
[name]Marius[/name]
[name]Pascal[/name]
Pierrick
[name]Quentin[/name]
[name]Remy[/name]
[name]Roch[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Vincent[/name]
[name]Yannick[/name]
I love French names!
[name]Cosette[/name]/[name]Colette[/name]
[name]Elodie[/name] (my French exchange student in hs had this name and I loved it. Pronounced Eh-lo-dee)
[name]Adele[/name]
[name]Noelle[/name] (you can play with the spelling)
[name]Margot[/name]
[name]Hope[/name] this helps! Best of luck
Oh, this is a good question. There are so many French names that I love and I hear in French regularly as we live in an area that is roughly half francophone, but the English pronunciation isn’t as appealing to me and we aren’t French, so I feel like a bit of a poser.
I think a lot of girl names ending in -elle or -ille work in English, like [name]Estelle[/name], [name]Camille[/name], [name]Danielle[/name], [name]Mirabelle[/name], [name]Michelle[/name], etc. and names ending in -ette, like [name]Cosette[/name], [name]Colette[/name], [name]Odette[/name], [name]Juliette[/name], etc. [name]Chantal[/name] works, too. [name]Sylvie[/name]/[name]Sylvia[/name]. I like Marieve and it’s still OK in English. [name]Mirelle[/name] just makes the transition for me. [name]Claire[/name], [name]Clarisse[/name], and [name]Claribel[/name]. [name]Renee[/name]. [name]Millicent[/name]. [name]Genevieve[/name]. [name]Nathalie[/name]. [name]Nicolette[/name]. [name]Noelle[/name].
Boy names are tougher. I don’t think they make the transition as well as the girl names. I love Francois, but [name]Francis[/name]? No. [name]Laurent[/name]: yes (until Twilight, arg). [name]Lawrence[/name]: no. [name]Pascal[/name] is nice. I realize it’s not only a French name, but that’s what it feels like to me. I love [name]Bernard[/name] in French, but not in English. I guess these are all the opposite of what you were asking for. I think [name]Louis[/name] works in English. Maybe [name]Remi[/name]. I think the advantage with it is that how people pronounce it in English is pretty similar to how it is in French. Same with [name]Gustav[/name]. Gregoire is nice. [name]Serge[/name] I definitely like more in French, but I think it might work. You would probably lose the French R, but the soft G might work. [name]Lucien[/name] doesn’t have a common English equivalent, so it might work. It kind of sounds a bit feminine if I try to say it in English, though. I like [name]Marcel[/name]. [name]Hugo[/name] works, too, though I’m not sure if it’s French. Maybe [name]Germain[/name]. I wish [name]Hercule[/name] worked, I love the French pronunciation.
My dh worked with someone named [name]Vital[/name] (emphasis on the second syllable) and thought it was an awesome name. We seriously considered naming one of the boys [name]Vital[/name], or using it as a middle name, but decided we couldn’t pull it off.
ETA: Sorry, I repeated a lot! When I opened this post, there were no replies yet, but I’ve been up and down with the kids.
I forgot [name]Jules[/name]. In English it sounds a bit like a nn for [name]Julie[/name], but I think [name]Jules[/name] [name]Verne[/name] redeems it.
Thank you all so much for the great suggestions!