500+ French Dog Names

The sort of oh-so-French name that's falling out of favor now.

Soft, amber-hued herbal and autumnal name that's used most often to describe the color of a horse. The proper spelling: Sorrel.

The French spelling of Lucy feels particularly light and shimmery.

Sophisticated French choice. Or toxic petrochemical.

Yet another creative character name from Toni Morrison, Denver was a daughter of Sethe's in the novel Beloved. Today Denver is most familiar as the name of the largest city in Colorado, used almost equally for girls and boys.

Creative choice, evoking the high-kicking can-can girls and other colorful figures in the works of Toulouse-Lautrec.

In the Top 25 in the unisex seventies, these days Tracy would more likely be Gracie.

A sleek, smooth, understated name off the grid in the US but among the Top 100 girl names in Germany. In the US, it is a unisex name, while in Germany and the Netherlands, it is predominantly feminine.

French version of August, for both sexes. And for those who feel the spelling of August is too plain.

Marine is an extremely popular and fashionable name in France that's virtually unknown here — and is ready to set sail. Marine feels more contemporary than Marina and less hippie-esque than Oceane, another popular name for girls in France.

A smooth and velvety Gallic choice first heard here as the heroine of the movie "Chocolat."

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.

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.

Amy was a 1970s favorite, and French spelling Aimee peaked in the same decade.

Somehow more modern and likable than Morris or Doris.

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

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.

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.

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.