This year I have taken a particular interest in the top baby names in france for 2011 since I am giving birth in late September (or early October if I calculate by due date using the French method).
Overall, in France the trend has been moving towards selecting shorter names. We are seeing less children in France named Alexandre or Nathalie, and more names like Lucas or Clara.
Girls are increasingly given names that end with an “a,” and boy with an “eo.” For example, girls names like Emma, Léa and Lina; and boys names like Léo, Théo and Mathéo.
American names are no longer popular, but Italian, Greek, Spanish and Irish names are becoming increasingly common. This includes names like Carla, Yanis, Lola and Kylian. There is some debate on whether using a foreign first name could hurt the child’s chances for finding higher positions, or receiving higher pay when entering the workforce.
The following list of the top baby names in France comes from the L’Officiel des Prénoms 2011 by Stéphanie Rapoport.
Popular French Baby Names
Girls / Filles | Boys / Garcons |
1. Emma 2. Jade 3. Léa 4. Manon 5. Chloé 6. Inès 7. Camille 8. Clara 9. Sarah 10. Maëlys 11. Zoé 12. Louise 13. Lola 14. Eva 15. Lilou 16. Lina 17. Romane 18. Anaïs 19. Louna 20. Lena |
1. Lucas 2. Nathan 3. Enzo 4. Louis 5. Mathis 6. Gabriel 7. Ethan 8. Jules 9. Noah 10. Raphaël 11. Maxime 12. Mathéo 13. Yanis 14. Tom 15. Hugo 16. Arthur 17. Clément 18. Thomas 19. Adam 20. Théo |
Some more useful resources for sorting through the top baby names in France are:
- Prenoms.com (French)
- Notrefamille.com – Top Prénoms 2011 (French)
Prenoms.com has a neat feature that allows you to search through the top baby names per year from 1901 to 2005 for each department in France. So if you are looking for a popular name in Calvados or Aveyron, you are in luck. It is fun to see the difference in name selections per department in France, rather than look at France as a whole.
Learn more about choosing a baby name according to French customs in my other blog post.
Image Credit: strelitzia on flickr.com
Marianne says
I’ve also noticed a trend in France (and elsewhere, for that matter) which is probably always a trend (what would you call that, then?) where older names are coming back! It seems like names somehow recycle themselves after a generation or two.
A ‘beau-cousin’ was saying how my French husband’s grandmothers had the prettiest names he’d ever heard: Léa and Clara. Well fancy seeing them in the top 20 for France!
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