French names

Why is it that you say someone's name with a French accent and it suddenly sounds so gorgeous? For example, Norbert, Melvin, Helen, Marie.

Mostly, the names of French children are really similar to English names when you see them written down. But really, it's the way you pronounce them that makes all the difference. Firstly, you drop the final consonant, and secondly, you emphasise the second or final syllable (in general, anyway). So, Norbert becomes Nor-bearr, Marie becomes Mar-ree, Richard becomes Ree-charr, and Sara becomes Sah-rah. Just say them with a French accent (pretend if you have to) and you'll be fine.

So here are some popular names for boys, and some that I just like: Pierre, Mathis, Jean-Marc, Jean-Luc, Jean-Baptiste, (etc), Claude, Mathieu, Felix, Jerome, Guilheum, Julien, Joachim, Fabien, Damien, Romain and Emile. They are all names of boys at school, or people we know.

The girls have a lot of names with Marie in them too (of course France was formerly a Catholic nation), for example Marie-Pierre, Marie-Claire, Marie-Odile, Marie-Jose, Marie-Therese and Marie-Blanche. I have friends with each of these names. Often you find a man's name in the with girl's name, like Marie-Pierre, and I haven't got to the bottom of that one yet.

There are other such pretty names for girls too: Agnes, Emmanuelle, Evangeline, Amandine, Agathe, Margaux, Armelle, Charlotte, Clara, Melusine (which means fairy), Juliette, Isabelle, Jeanne and Adele.

In my son Edward's class last year there were two little girls called Maryama. To avoid confusion, one was called Maryama la grande (the big, as she was the taller girl), and Maryama la petite (the small). Too cute, and they were both as dark as dark with the most beautiful smiles and plaited hair.

And you also hear lots of North African and Magrebian names (from Morroco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, etc), like Kholoud, Abel, Ayoub, Marhwa. We know a lot of families from school whose parents were originally from former French colonies. Not so many of those people in Wellington, New Zealand, that's for sure.