{"id":34730,"date":"2022-06-28T05:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T03:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=34730"},"modified":"2022-06-27T20:30:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T18:30:45","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first moved to France in the 1980\u2019s I stood out for many reasons, among them the fact that my name is Tim Hildreth. When I lived in France, everyone (or so it seemed) had very \u201cclassically\u201d French names like Pierre or Paul, Marie or Monique or Jean. Things have changed a lot in the intervening years!<\/p>\n

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Photo CC0 from www.pexels.com<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Comment vous appelez-vous?<\/h3>\n

Up until 1993, parents in France where required to choose their children\u2019s names from a list of approved names. In fact, \u201cla l\u00e9gislation fran\u00e7aise \u00e9tait tr\u00e8s stricte sur la question. [Une]\u00a0loi [datant] du 11 germinal an XI (1er avril 1803) obligeait les parents \u00e0 choisir un pr\u00e9nom dans divers calendriers ou parmi les personnages de l’Histoire antique<\/strong><\/a>\u201d1<\/a><\/sup>the laws were quite strict on the question. [A] law [dating to] 11 germinal year XI (April 1, 1803) required parents to choose a first name from among certain calendars or from among historic people.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The change in law has resulted in a proliferation of different names (check out the post below for the most popular names from 2015!) though there are still limits. \u201cSi un petit nom semble contraire \u00e0 l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de l’enfant, l\u2019officier d\u2019\u00e9tat civil pr\u00e9vient le procureur de la R\u00e9publique et un juge aux affaires familiales d\u00e9cide de son maintien ou de sa suppression. R\u00e9guli\u00e8rement, des pr\u00e9noms jug\u00e9s contraires \u00e0 l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de l’enfant sont ainsi refus\u00e9s<\/strong>.\u201d2<\/a><\/sup>If a name strikes the registrar of names as not in the child\u2019s best interest, they can alert a federal magistrate and a family judge will decide if the name can stand or not. Regularly, names that are deemed not in the child\u2019s interest are refused.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The video below highlights the top names pour les filles et pour les gar\u00e7ons<\/strong>3<\/a><\/sup>for girls and for boys<\/em><\/span>\u00a0from 2021. You can also see where different names are more common across l\u2019Hexagone<\/a>.<\/p>\n