1200+ French Names (with Meanings and Popularity)

Only if you're an aviation buff or seriously addicted to popcorn.

Minuet is delicate, dancey, and lacy, with a Masterpiece Theatre feel. Is Minuet a real name? Not really, though similar-sounding French names such as Minette and Manette are.

This is the French form of Lazarus, which recently has been rising from the dead – it's popular on Nameberry, and was used for his son by musician Trent Reznor. Lazare might be familiar to some via the Gare Saint-Lazare train station in Paris.

Somehow more modern and likable than Morris or Doris.

Almost always a girl's name now.

While Sidney in this spelling has a long history as a girls' name, it fell off the Top 1000 from the early 50s until 1990. Then it reemerged as one of the newly chic androgynous names for girls, rising into the Top 300 before falling off the Top 1000 list again in 2016. Sydney is now the more fashionable form.

Has a musty 1940s feel. Try Georgia -- or Georgiana.

A pretty name heard in the Louisiana Cajun community, Abella would fit right in with all the other, more familiar, bella names.

Didier is kind of a Desiree for boy--a lively, confident name that's widely used in France and has definite possibilities here. It's the name of an early French saint.

Sasha in all its forms -- which include Sacha and Sascha -- is rising in popularity for both boys and girls, especially with the Sasha spelling attached to one of the First Daughters.

It's interesting how names imported to the US from other countries and cultures have fashion cycles of their own. Paulette along with cousins Annette and Claudette were the most fashionable French imports in the middle of the last century, only to sink from sight and be replaced by such current French favorites as Charlotte, Sophie, and Eloise. In general, feminizations of male names have faded in favor of gender-neutral choices, and Paul itself is off its own fashion peak. But Paulette has the same vintage charm as names like Margot and Josephine that are very much a la mode. And far from being extinct, Paulette hits that sweet spot of names that are familiar but not over-used. It was given to about 130 baby girls in the US last year, on par with May, Avalon, Jolee, Liza, and Vivianne. This is three times as many baby girls as were named Paulette in 2000, so while the name may still lie well beneath the Top 1000, it's very much on the way up.

As a surname, Viel is a French and English variation of Vial, ultimately from the Latin word for "life". The German variation is derived from the word vil, meaning "swamp" or "bog".

Antoine is a venerable French name that is still stylish in its native habitat, where it is in the Top 30. In the US, it was most popular in the 1970s and '80s, reaching Number 262 in 1985.

French form of Callistus or Callixtus, borne by several popes and saints.

Might make a worthy masculine spin on either of the uber popular Emma or Emily.

A name that looks intriguing and masculine on paper, but is, unfortunately, a homonym for a girl's name.

Historically, the French and English name Florence was used for both sexes. And Florent is a steady classic in France, booming there in the 1980s. Maybe it's time to import it, and show that boys can be floral too.

Josue - usually written as Josué - is a French, Spanish, and Portuguese variation of Joshua that has been in the US Top 300 since 1990 and in the Top 1000 since the 70s. While it remains popular in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, in its native Spain, France, and Portugal, it has fallen slightly out of style.

A trendy name in France, sometimes also spelled Ysaline, that's related to both Isabelle and Iseult. To the American ear, it freshens up Isabelle without really improving on it.