1200+ French Names (with Meanings and Popularity)

Hippolyte is the name of an Amazonian princess AND her son, both unfortunate mythical figures. The name Hippolyte, later borne by several saints, is a not an uncommon boys' name in France, but has barely set foot on American soil and is unlikely to do so. It was the middle name of famed French playwright Jean Giraudoux.

Here, it's strictly for girls, though Celine Dion's boy Rene-Charles reminded us of its masculine origins.

Mercer is one fashionable occupational name that can work as well for girls as boys, perhaps because of the soft c or the conventionally feminine nickname Mercy.

Lobbing off the final E makes Melanie more modern.

Pronounced as the English word joy, rather than as the French phrase joie de vivre, Joie might produce more complications than joy.

Albertine and Alberta are old-fashioned feminizations ala Geraldine and Roberta. This is the kind of name that sounds very dowdy until a hip celebrity chooses it, at which point we don't know how we missed its coolness all this time.

Truly offbeat, but just on the brink of outré.

Patrice is a more modern-sounding and polished unisex alternative to Patricia.

Venerable old saint's name now associated solely with talk show host Philbin, who is constantly seeking namesakes.

Fabiola was the romantically elaborate name of a saint who organized the first hospice.

A Dorothy nickname name with a measure of nostalgic charm. Kids will associate it with the funny fish character voiced by Ellen DeGeneres in the Pixar animated instant classic Finding Nemo.

This name of famed philosopher, mathematician and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell becomes slightly more plausible with the French pronunciation, bare-TRAHN. Another noted bearer is French director and screenwriter Bertrand Tavernier.

Prune is a fruit name loved by the French, for whom it's a Plum equivalent. In the U.S., Plum works, but Prune is not a name we'd want to inflict on a child. Prunella is slightly more plausible.

his engaging French saint's name, pronounced like tangy, with a hard 'g,' also has a creative connection to French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy.