French boy names
More French names are already in American use than most parents realise, because 1066 got there first: Percy, Spencer, Chase and Travis are French words wearing English clothes. This page separates the four French names in the current U.S. top 100 from the traditional stock, the Breton names that come out of a Celtic corner of France, and that Norman layer buried inside English.
French names in the U.S. top 100
- #3OliverOL-iv-erNorman French
Traditionally the olive tree, though a Germanic name reshaped by Latin is a serious rival account. It enters the record as Olivier, Roland's level-headed companion in the eleventh-century Chanson de Roland.
- #48CharlesCHARLZGermanic, via French
Free man, from Germanic karlaz. The word is French in shape and royal by association: ten kings of France carried it, starting with Charlemagne.
- #60BeauBOHFrench
Handsome, fine. In France it stays an adjective and is never a personal name; the American South did the borrowing, and America kept it.
- #86Gaelgah-ELBreton and French
Blessed and generous, by way of Breton Gwenaël. French bearers spell it Gaël; the American surge owes most to its popularity in Mexico.
Traditional French names
Saints, kings and one Roman number. All ten sit outside the current U.S. top 100, and most of them are commoner in France, Belgium and Quebec than they have ever been in America.
- LouisLOO-iss or loo-EEFrench
Fame and war, from Frankish Chlodowig. Clovis and Louis are the same name; no other name has been worn by more French kings.
- AndreAHN-drayFrench
Manly, brave. Greek andreios in a French mouth, with the stress moved to the second syllable.
- Marcelmar-SELFrench
Little Marcus. Latin made affection out of suffixes, and this diminutive outgrew the name it was formed from.
- RemyREH-meeFrench
Traditionally read as oarsman, from Latin remex. Saint Rémi baptised Clovis at Reims around 496, the moment usually treated as the founding of Christian France.
- Pascalpas-KALFrench
Of Easter. Latin pascha came through Greek from Hebrew pesach, and the name went to children born in Holy Week.
- Noelnoh-ELFrench
Christmas, worn down from Latin natalis dies, the day of birth. The same logic as Pascal, moved to December.
- QuentinKWEN-tinFrench
Fifth. Romans numbered their children without embarrassment, and a third-century martyr turned the number into a Picard town and a French name.
- Jeromejuh-ROHMFrench
Sacred name, from Greek hieros and onoma. Old French sanded Hieronymus down to Jerome; the saint behind it translated the Bible into Latin.
- DennisDEN-issFrench
Belonging to Dionysus. Saint Denis was the first bishop of Paris and is a patron of France, which is how a wine god's name became a Catholic staple.
- Yohanyo-AHNFrench
God is gracious. One of the modern French spellings of the Hebrew name that gave Europe Jean, John, Ivan and Giovanni.
The Breton layer
Brittany speaks a Celtic language brought from Britain in late antiquity, and its names are closer kin to Welsh and Cornish than to anything Latin. Breton contingents fought at Hastings and were rewarded with English land, which is how a handful of them ended up sounding ordinary in English. Gael, in the top-100 list above, belongs to this group too.
- AlanAL-unBreton
Disputed — traditionally read as rock, or as handsome. The route is not disputed: Alan Rufus, Count of Brittany, became one of the wealthiest landholders in Domesday England.
- HarveyHAR-veeBreton
Battle worthy. Breton Haerviu was Latinised by clerks as Herveus and flattened by English speakers into Harvey.
- Yannickyah-NEEKBreton
Yahweh is gracious. A Breton pet form of Jean that spread through France in the 1960s and had a parallel run in Belgium and Quebec.
- YvesEEVFrench
Yew, the wood bows were made from. Saint Yves of Kermartin, a Breton priest and lawyer who defended the poor for nothing, is the patron saint of lawyers; the s is silent.
The Norman layer
These eleven are French words that became English surnames after the Conquest and American first names much later. Nobody thinks of them as French imports, which is exactly the point: the Norman vocabulary went so deep into English that its names stopped sounding foreign.
- PercyPUR-seeNorman French
From a Norman village called Perci. William de Percy came over with the Conquest, and his descendants spent four centuries as the most difficult family on the Scottish border.
- QuincyKWIN-seeNorman French
The estate of Quintius. Saer de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, was one of the twenty-five barons appointed to enforce Magna Carta.
- PiercePEERSSNorman French
Rock — the same word as Peter. Norman French could not comfortably say Petrus and produced Piers, the form that crossed the Channel in 1066.
- TravisTRAV-issNorman French
From traverser, to cross over. The name belongs to the man who kept the crossing and took the toll, not to the crossing itself.
- ChaseCHAYSSNorman French
A chase was privately held hunting country, a forest without forest law. From Old French chacier, to hunt.
- BooneBOONNorman French
Good, from bon — or from Bohon in the Cotentin. The argument is unsettled, so take the gloss with an asterisk; Daniel Boone made it a first name.
- ForrestFOR-istNorman French
Woodland, but originally a legal status: forestis silva was the wood lying outside ordinary use and reserved to the crown.
- SpencerSPEN-serNorman French
The despensier ran the dispense, weighing out bread and ale to everyone who ate at the lord's expense. The office became the surname.
- MarshallMAR-shulNorman French
Horse servant, from Frankish marhskalk. When the horses were the army, the man who kept them ended up commanding it, which is how maréchal reached the top of the ranks.
- AveryAY-vuh-reeNorman French
Elf ruler. Germanic Alberich, softened in Norman mouths and worn through Alvery to Avery.
- CalvinKAL-vinFrench
Bald. Latin calvus became Old French chauve, and a Picard family nickname became a surname; Jean Cauvin signed himself Calvinus and Europe learned it that way.
How French naming works
France regulated first names for almost two centuries. A law of 1803 allowed registrars to accept only names drawn from the calendars of saints and from figures of ancient history, and clerks enforced it stubbornly enough that Breton and Occitan parents fought court cases over spellings. The rule was finally loosened in 1993: parents now choose freely, and the registrar's only remaining power is to refer a name to the public prosecutor, and from there to a family judge, if it looks contrary to the child's interests. Very few are ever refused, but the mechanism is real and it is used.
Two habits survive from the old system. French children are usually registered with two or three prénoms and use the first, and a compound given name joined by a hyphen — Jean-Pierre, Marc-Antoine, Pierre-Yves — counts as one name, not two, so it cannot be split. And the saints' calendar that once constrained the choice still hangs in French kitchens: each day carries a name, and a French Pascal or Yves will get a text on his fête as well as his birthday. The origins index covers how other languages handle the same problem.