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I would say names that are so old-fashioned in France that they're rarely used by French parents anymore (e.g. Antoinette, Cosette). Also French "word names" that aren't actually names in France (e.g. Alouette) and, similarly, French place names and surnames.

Names ending in -ette. Not that they can’t be genuinely French, but Georgette, Antoinette or Juliette strike me as Francophile if used by a non Francophone person.

I'd say maybe something like Trishelle, though I actually think it's pretty.

The first two that come to mind to me would be Cherie and Mignon, which are French words that have been turned into names in other cultures but are almost never used as given names in France itself. There are probably some other examples of that phenomenon that I'm not remembering at the moment, too.

I second what New_Chloë said. In addition, daily names that seem quite frilly, such as Marguerite, Vivienne, Isabeau, Garance, Roseline, Sylvain, Casimir, Aurèle, Francisque, Lambert, et cetera...

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Also, since the late 90s, the French like borrowing names from other languages, such as Arabic, Italian and even English, and they use the borrowings or else they alter them and use those variants. For instance... Alyah, Maddy, Imany, Sienna, Rosalia, Malone, Elyo, Swann, Leeroy or Nahyl, to list a few. Most of them can be found at the bottom of the chart. It's quite interesting and unpredictable, since this kind of names cycles fast.

Hi!

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I don't understand: French names are just ... French. There are not "right" French names or "wrong" French names...

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Then any Frenchman or Frenchwoman has his/her own taste about names. Someone likes classic names, someone likes foreign names, someone loves vintage names or popular names but all these names are French.

This message was edited 1/13/2024, 11:48 AM

That's an interesting idea! Hmm, maybe using names that can be found in literature and history, especially more fanciful stuff, or famous surnames as first names? Like Eponine, Haydée, Cosette, Colette, Antoinette, Javert, Fantine, Marius, Hermine, Albine, Matisse, Cézanne, Héloïse, Abélard, Gaspard? Or popular names given a very obvious French treatment, like insisting on Chloé, Léo, Aimée, Maximilien, Sébastien, etc.

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Or perhaps names that are considered very old fashioned and uncool by modern French standards, but very glamorous and Super French to non French people, like Étienne, Marie, Sylvie, Pierre, etc? I remember I once told my French coworker how handsome and exotic I thought Étienne was and she wrinkled her nose and said "What a boring name, it's just STEVE".