500+ French Dog Names

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.

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.

Almost always a girl's name now.

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.

For years there was only one Cher, and then along came the charming heroine of the movie "Clueless." The world now officially has enough Chers in it.

Ghislaine still sounds unusual to us, even though in France this name is dated. It can also be spelled Ghislain.

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.

This buoyant name has the same bouncy rhythm as Rafferty and Barnaby, but is virtually unused. It has plenty of literary cred, too: characters in The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native have all borne the name.

The French spin on the name of the great Homeric hero with the vulnerable heel seems somewhat more portable into the modern world.

The chic Euro spelling of Henry is rising along with the original form.

Traditionally used by the ultrareligious, the French boys' name Baptiste comes from the Greek word meaning "to dip". Baptiste is one of the Top 100 Boy Names in France.

This highly unusual name has been kicked up a notch, thanks to cooking guru Emeril Lagasse.

This regal French name is a descendant of the Latin Regina, as is the Spanish Reina. Reine is also a male name in Scandinavia.

Surname of French architect Jean Nouvel that became a given name when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie used it as the middle name of their daughter Shiloh.

Calm, composed, and chic.

Though it's French, most Americans would pronounce it as the stone.

Alain gives the midcentury Alan a bit of gallic dash.