Rare French Boy Names

Friendlier french form of ancient Germanic royal name Amalric or Emmerich.

Malo, the name of an important sixth century Breton saint who founded St. Malo, the charming port town in Brittany -- is considered quite au courant in France right now, ranking firmly in the Top 100.

Luc is the sleeker Gallic cousin of Luke, and if you want to know the difference between their pronunciations, just watch Kevin Kline's hilarious description in the film French Kiss. Peter Gabriel and Sean Patrick Thomas picked this version for their sons.

An aromatic, unconventional name.

Very popular in France and Belgium, this name -- pronounced mat-tees, like the surname of the painter Matisse -- might make an appealing new way to say Matthew here.

An original choice for a fisherman's child.

Doesn't everything sound better with a French accent? Sylvain, the French variation of the Roman wood god's name, sounds somehow cooler and more sophisticated than Sylvan.

Pronounced "crwa", this unusual name was chosen by Cedric the Entertainer for his son.

A dashing French surname name most famously borne by Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist, writer and philosopher who influenced such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. The most common modern American pronunciation is "thor-OH", with emphasis on the final syllable, although Thoreau himself pronounced it "THOR-oh".

Corentin is an intriguing saint's name fashionable in France but virtually unknown here-- which you may consider a big plus. St. Corentin possessed a magical fish that regenerated itself each night, feeding himself and his lucky visitors in perpetuity.

This beautiful Breton saint's name peaked at #127 in France in 2006. It's still in the Top 500 there today, but remains almost unknown outside of France.

Mime Marcel Marceau actually had two versions of the same name. Marcel, Marceau, Marcella, Marcus, Mark -- all are variation of the Roman mythological name Mars, the god of war.

More appealing than the English version, Aubin might be seen as a fresher and more decidedly masculine twist on Aubrey. This handsome discovery is now ranked at Number 311 in its native France.

Jasper is an internationally-popular name that takes many forms, among them Casper, Gaspar, and the French version Gaspard. Virtually unknown in the US, Gaspard is one of the Top 100 Boy Names in France.

A cute and fresh way to get to Max, this was the name of a sixth century saint. Maxence is a Top 100 boys' name in France, but largely unknown in the US where it is given to only a handful of baby boys each year.

Pronounced TEE-bow, this version, which is also a very common surname in France, has a lot more charm than the name it derives from — Theobald. A variant spelling is Thibaut.

Popular President Franklin Delano Roosevelt inspired a brief fashion for this as a first name in the 1940s; almost never heard today.

Truly original yet not strange name ripe for the plucking by the adventurous baby namer. Aurelius works too.

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.