Gender neutral names in French đŸ‡«đŸ‡·

General Name Discussion
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While searching for my own gender neutral name I have thought about French names too! French gender names are so many - a whole world, and this is a view of some of them!

This is a post I made for “masterlist” in case someone would need it for a child or themselves.

From French Wikipedia - Prenoms Epicenes - Prenoms Mixtes

Common gender neutral names

Alex, Ange or Angel or Angie, Camille, Charlie or Charly, Claude, Dany, Doninique, Jackie or Jacky, Leslie or Lesly, Lou, Maxence, Morgan, Sam, Sacha (or Sasha, Sascha), Yannick (or Janick, Yanick, Jannick, Jeannick)

Rare gender neutral names

AbigaĂ«l or AbigaĂŻl, Adama, Alexie or Alexy (The last is more common), Alix, Alma, AloĂŻse or Aloyse or AloĂŻs (Both are gender neutral, the last more common), Ambre, Ambroise, AnaĂ«l, Anastase, AndrĂ©a, Ariel, ArsinoĂ«, BĂ©nilde, Bertille, Calixta or Calixte(Both neutral, last more common), Candide, Carol, Cassandre, CĂ©leste, ClĂ©o, Dana, Éden,Élie, Ezra, Edelwen, Gwen or Gwenn, Isabeau, Jo, Keziah, Lexane, Lior, Loan, LoĂŻs, Louison, Luce, MahĂ© or MaĂ©, Modeste, Nell, Noa et Noah, Nicky, Nirina, Olive, Olympe, Prudence, Sandy, Tiphaine, ValĂ©ry or ValĂšre (Both neutral!), Willow, YaĂ«l.

Particular gender neutral names

Alexis, Alice, Anne, Brice, Frédérique, Hippolyte, Marie or Mari or Mary, Maxime, Nathan, Nicole, Patrice, Philippe, Rachel, Roger, Stéphane, Théodore, Timothée, Yann, Zoé.

Other gender neutral names

Adalgis, Ado, Aelig, Afon, Ai, Aiko, Alma, Almir, Ami, Anaël, Anicet, Asa, Beau, Billie, Carmel, Cheyenne, Dakota, Dorothée, Drew, Farah, Gaby, George, Hanan, Harper, Hédi, Hero, Hyacinthe, Jade, Jaymie, Joyce, Jules, Kai, Kari, Kaya, Kelly, Kwanita, Lénaïc, Lilian, Logan, Loulou, Loup, Loyola, Madison, Magloire, Malise, Mallaury (Variants: Mallary, Mallery, Malorie, Malory, Mallorie and Mallorey, Mallory. Mallaury is the most common spelling), Marion, Meredith, Meryl, Minka, Mischa (Or Misha, Micha), Mitra, Muriel, Narcisse, Nour, Odina, Orla, Philothée, Reggie, Reva, Saadia, Sakari, Sandeep, Satinka, Selma, Stacey or Stacy or Stessy or Stecy, Swann or Swan, Swany, Taima, Talasi, Thaïs, Ufuk, Waleta, Yacine, Yancy, Youra, You or Yu, Zorah.

Statistically most used gender neutral names (France)

(Beside the ones written in the categories above like Maxence or Yaël, which I will skip. Marie, Claude, Dominique, Camille, and Yannick are the first four; after comes
)

IrĂšne (immediately after Yannick), JosĂ©, Cyrille, GaĂ«l, France, GrĂ©goire, Lenny or Leny, AminĂ©, Christel, Stanislas, Edwige, ArsĂšne, Jessy or Jessie, LĂ©andre, Loan, Wendy, Nolwenn, Louka, CĂŽme, Andy, AdĂ©laĂŻde, LĂ©once, GwenaĂ«l, Firmin, AmedĂ©e, Wilfrid, Aristide, Ayden or AĂŻden, Gildas, Joan, Kenny, Casimir, Nawel, BarthĂ©lemy, Malone, Aubin, Armel, Joy, Kim, Isidore, IrenĂ©e (A different name from IrĂšne!), Omer, Eulalie, Doris, Lohan, Chris, Ashley, Laury, Johanne, Zacharie, Hilaire, Jordane, Marley, Blaise, Prisca, Urbain, AĂŻssa, Hayden, Clotaire, Colombe, Maximin, FĂ©licitĂ©, Sylvestre, Anselme, Jany, NaĂŻs, Landry, Nahel, Joey or Joe, Ignace, Loann or Louann, Amal, Malek, Noha, Jayden, Jacob, Joanny, Danny, El, MĂ©dĂ©ric, Lazare, Iman, Élijah, Barbe, PacĂŽme, Jad, Rock, Wissem, HeĂŻdi, Matisse, Fortune, JudicaĂ«l, Clarence, Ilham, Maddy, AurĂšle, Noah, JosĂ©pha, Kessy, LĂ©ocadie, Sharon, Faustin, Ikram, Tifenn, Nestor, Arya, Sidney, Vicky, Islem, Ursule, Manoa, Marie-JosĂ©ph, Palmyre, Cali, Cyriaque, ManoĂ©, Lambert, Claudy, Euphrasie, Sohane, Marian.

These are not all, just the most common and general / well known ones. Including other names would be too much long and somehow exhausting so I did not write them.

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Ooh [name_m]Maxence[/name_m] is so cool -love it!!

[name_u]Lou[/name_u], [name_u]Leslie[/name_u], [name_u]Sacha[/name_u], [name_u]Dana[/name_u], [name_u]Cleo[/name_u], [name_u]Lior[/name_u], [name_u]Ezra[/name_u], [name_u]Alma[/name_u], [name_m]Amedee[/name_m], [name_u]Landry[/name_u], and [name_u]Jessy[/name_u] are my faves as gender neutral names!

Thanks for sharing!

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Maxence sounds so masculine for me, and I could not really see it on a girl (in English it is Emerson, which I really cannot see on a girl), but to each their own!

I agree with Lou (neutral), Leslie (neutral), Sacha (masc), Cleo(neutral), Amedée (neutral), and Jess (neutral)!

This research made me find Landry, which I did not know before existed as a name! It is not on my fabourites but it is interesting, so cool!

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To me [name_u]Sasha[/name_u] with a short vowel sound is masculine (and a diminutive of Alexander). With a long vowel sound it feels feminine.

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[name_m]Can[/name_m] you please explain the difference between the two? I’m having a hard time figuring out another way to pronounce [name_u]Sasha[/name_u] :sweat_smile:

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They are all pronounced in the same way but

Sacha is French
Sascha is German / Dutch
Sasha is English, Russian and of other languages

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Oh no, I’m sorry, my comment was in response to @GreyHairMamaBear but it didn’t tag them for some reason!! Sorry for randomly commenting without replying to your actual post, I just saw that comment and had to ask!
I was curious in relation to their comment, and how they said [name_u]Sasha[/name_u] could be pronounced two different ways :sweat_smile:

I think [name_u]Sasha[/name_u] (all spellings, but this is my favorite personally) is extremely lovely and completely neutral!! :blush:

my favorites from the rest of your list are:
[name_u]Willow[/name_u] (!!!), [name_u]Arya[/name_u] (except this is fem to me), [name_u]Morgan[/name_u], [name_u]Harper[/name_u], [name_u]Elie[/name_u], [name_m]Casimir[/name_m], [name_u]Jules[/name_u], [name_u]Hero[/name_u], [name_u]Sam[/name_u], [name_m]Gwenael[/name_m], [name_m]Barthelemy[/name_m], [name_u]Charlie[/name_u], [name_u]Jesse[/name_u] (or Jess), [name_u]Gael[/name_u], [name_f]Hyacinthe[/name_f], [name_f]Cassandre[/name_f], [name_u]Sidney[/name_u], [name_u]Cleo[/name_u], [name_m]Leandre[/name_m], [name_u]Valery[/name_u], [name_u]Swan[/name_u], [name_u]Carol[/name_u], [name_u]Misha[/name_u], [name_u]Lenny[/name_u], [name_f]Olive[/name_f], [name_m]Calixte[/name_m], Aloise, [name_u]Lior[/name_u], [name_u]Alix[/name_u], [name_u]Angel[/name_u] (one of my closest friends name! he’s a boy!), [name_m]Isidore[/name_m], [name_u]Claude[/name_u], [name_u]Kai[/name_u], [name_u]Alma[/name_u], [name_m]Ambroise[/name_m], [name_u]Clarence[/name_u], [name_u]Jackie[/name_u] (though I prefer [name_u]Jack[/name_u] “Jackie”), [name_u]Luce[/name_u], [name_m]Yannick[/name_m], Alexie (I prefer [name_m]Alexei[/name_m] though!), [name_u]Asa[/name_u], [name_u]Hippolyte[/name_u], [name_f]Benilde[/name_f], [name_u]Beau[/name_u], [name_f]Arsinoe[/name_f], [name_u]Nicky[/name_u], [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] (though this does feel more masculine to me, I think [name_u]Theo[/name_u] is 100% neutral!), & [name_m]Wilfrid[/name_m] (more masc to me though)

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I feel like Theo is masc for me and Theodore is neutral hah :eye::eye: curious how opinions change

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I love that [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] feels neutral to you!! I think because where I’m from [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] is popular for boys, and [name_f]Theodora[/name_f] is the fem version!

[name_u]Theo[/name_u] is neutral to me because I’ve known a few [name_m]Theodoras[/name_m] with the nickname! There’s a show called The Haunting of [name_m]Hill[/name_m] House, with a female [name_u]Theo[/name_u] as one of the main characters! She’s the reason I love it so much for any gender!!

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In my country theodore is not used at all while Teo (Theo?) is used sometimes for boys even though rarely so
 Plus it really sounds masculine for me. Tea (usually this spelling) / Thea is the femm form and is a bit more used than Teo (getting a bit popular these years but not common still)
and theodore really sounds neutral for me :eye::eye:

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SAH-sha (like the long a in car)

SASH-a (like Pasha)

I think that’s what @GreyHairMamaBear means?

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i pronounce it SAH-sha!

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IMO:

[name_u]Sasha[/name_u] with an “ash” sound is masculine

Sasha/Sascha with an “arsh” sound is more feminine

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i feel so confused now :eye::lips::eye:

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@minxtruck @GreyHairMamaBear thanks for responding!! I have only heard it pronounced sah-sha, I didn’t realize it could be pronounced the other way!

Personally I think Sah-sha sounds more masculine, rather than with the “ash” sound!

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I pronounce it like Sah-sha and i did not know you could pronounce it in other ways

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I love a gender neutral name- thank you for putting this together. I truly love a masc leaning name on a girl and some names that people think of more feminine I only like on a boy like [name_u]Milan[/name_u] or [name_u]Morgan[/name_u].

[name_f]My[/name_f] favorite [name_u]French[/name_u] neural names are [name_u]Remy[/name_u], [name_u]Jules[/name_u], [name_u]Eden[/name_u], and [name_u]Marin[/name_u].

[name_u]Sasha[/name_u] is completely neutral but I prefer it on a girl.

[name_u]Camille[/name_u] is high on the charts for boys in [name_u]France[/name_u] and I love that, especially pronounced cah-MEE but I don’t think it would really work in the States.

Yaël in Hebrew is almost always used for girls but I love it for a boy too.

What I like from here:
[name_u]Alix[/name_u]- feminine but really this could be a boy too, it would just be more misspelled
[name_u]Carmel[/name_u] (leans fem)
[name_u]Drew[/name_u]- love this for a girl so much but would use for either
Mischa/Misha/Micha- I do prefer this for a girl. I know in Russian it’s more for boys like [name_u]Sasha[/name_u] but I also love it as a pet name too.
[name_f]ThaĂŻs[/name_f]- this is very cool for either
[name_u]Jessy[/name_u] or [name_u]Jessie[/name_u]

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Me too :joy: [name_m]Ive[/name_m] only heard it saw-sha like the first part sounds like saw never like sash-uh sounding like a dress sash?

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For me masc leaning French gender neutral names are:

Rémy, Claude, Yannick, Jules, Laurence, Maxence, Ezra, Valéry, Hippolyte, Maxime, Timothée, Théodore, Milo, Adrien, Léo, Théo.

*please note that some of the names are not neutral in France (Adrien) or viceversa in the states (Théodore)

My impressions (Might be different because I live in Europe)

To me Carmel is totally neutral and does not lean femm at all.
To me Sasha is totally gender neutral. I prefer it on a boy, though. It is slightly more masculine to me, especially written Sacha. But since theorically it is 100% neutral if I met a girl or a nonbinary folk named Sasha I wouldn’t feel like it is weird. It just leans masculine to my impression (but again I know it is generally considerated a neutral name)
Camille for me is 100% gender neutral too. I live in a country near France, so this might be why. Anyway in my country Camille is very rare so if people met a boy or enby Camille nobody would think it is weird.
Drew is a totally masculine name for me, maybe because of Andrew.