I feel it's formal, classic, a bit exotic, and reminds me of the goddess in Greek mythology, Anatole France, and a saint. With a great meaning, it should be noble, decent, usable in different cultures. I really wonder why people would think a name like this devious. I would like to see it used more.
Anatole is a character in Tolstoy's War and Peace, which the musical 'Natasha and Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812' is based off of. He is the son of Prince Vassily/Vasili, the brother of Helene/Ellen (Depending on which translation you read), and one of the love interests of Natasha.
A famous bearer of this name is Anatole Courbet (1827-1885) a French admiral who won a series of important land and naval victories during the Tonkin campaign (1883-1886) and the Sino-French War (1884-1885). Anatole Courbet was born in Abbeville (France) and died in Magong (Tawain) on his ship “Bayard”.
Anatole is also the name of one of the ancient Greek Horai, one of the goddesses of the hours. It means "rising". It is transliterated as Anatolê, and written as Ανατολη in Greek. http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Horai.html.
Anatole Farnsworth; in Beth Killian's series The 310, Anatole Farnsworth is the deceased father of Eva Cordes.
― Anonymous User 1/16/2007
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A character in Barbra Kingslover's book The Poisonwood Bible. The Russian nickname is Tolya or Tolyan. Tolya was the title character in the Russian movie Vor. ("Thief")