Why is it so hard to find a name for a baby boy? Help needed!

I don’t know why but finding a name for a baby boy seems to be infinitely harder than finding names for a baby girl. Before those who know me get excited and start thinking we’ve given in and found out the sex of our bump, sorry to disappoint you but we are still in the dark. As with L we don’t know the sex, and as with L, we’re struggling to find boys’ names that we’re both happy with.

It doesn’t seem to be just us either; my sister gave birth to my nephew 2.5 weeks ago and they are yet to name him (fortunately for them they live in New Zealand where you have 3 months to name your baby, as against 3 days in France!) I also have a work colleague who took several weeks to name her baby boy.

After living in France for 12 years where you have just 3 days to name your baby or the state names him/her for you, I still feel that I need to go into labour with a girl’s name and a boy’s name all set to go. As I mentioned previously we had chosen our two names and we were both happy with these and ready to go….then I got chatting to my sister after my nephew’s birth and I started worrying about whether our choice of a French name would work/be pronounceable in the UK.

To be on the safe side I presented two of my London mummy friends with a shortlist of boys’ and girls’ names and asked them to pronounce them. Oh dear. There went our boy’s name. With the likelihood that it’ll be pronounced wrongly and in a way that I really dislike too we’ve had to delete it from our list. The issue here is that it was the only boy’s name B and I could both agree on.

On the up side we seem to be ok on the girl’s name front. On the down side we’re back to square one with boys’ names; unable to agree on one name that we both like.

So if you’re bored, how about you help us out with any suggestions and pop them in the comments below? Here are our criteria:

  • We’re looking for a French name as our surname is French.
  • It can’t be too long as our surname is long with 3 syllables.
  • We’re trying to avoid names starting with L, B or S as those letters start our names.
  • Our surname starts with an L and the letter B is quite dominant.
Alternatively we could stick a pin in it....

Alternatively we could stick a pin in it….

 

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6 Responses

  1. Mummy in Provence says:

    A boy! Wow!

    I love the following French boys names (we always looked for non french names but we are in France)

    – Olivier
    – Didier
    – Matisse (but that appears to be super popular along with Hugo)

    Other names I liked for a boy that work in English and French are

    – Alix ( some say its a girls name?)
    – Zane (not french at all but love)

  2. Pauline says:

    I know what you mean! I was glad we were having a girl purely because it was easier to name her!

    My personal preference will have to go with Philippe, Christophe or Thomas, as all three translate very easily into English. Anything with ‘Jean’ in it is a no-no, every single English-speaking person will get it wrong and think your baby’s a girl. My other half is Jean-… and it’s an absolute nightmare.

    Personally I really like Thomas. Philippe and Christophe are also quite nice and translate easily. More ‘out there’, you also have Tristan…

  3. Franglaise Mummy says:

    I’m beginning to hope it’s a girl just because the baby names are easier!

    I like Olivier but B doesn’t. I like Didier but it reminds B too much of “Didier” that dog film. Matisse is super popular but it could be making the shortlist as it’s pronounceable in both countries and we both like it. I think the other two might be too “way out” for us.

    Why is it sooooo hard?!?

  4. Franglaise Mummy says:

    Hi Pauline,

    I like Philippe, Christophe and Thomas but unfortunately we know too many of them! I agree with you re Jean!!

    I like Tristan too but it’s the name of my husband’s cousin so is also out….

    Last night we managed to narrow it down to 2 names we can both handle, but neither of us really love them yet, so we’re still looking…..

  5. MuMuGB says:

    Kevin is v popular (or used to be). My nephew is a Cedric and he is v cute. I like Alex, Thom and Max too. I have two daughters, and if we had had a boy we would still be looking for his name! I know it is tough!

  6. Franglaise Mummy says:

    Unfortunately Kevin is a big no-no in the UK (ça fait beauf). Cédric isn’t bad for France but I can see Cédrics being teased at school in the UK. I’ve always said no names that could be male or female so that rules Alex out, too many Tom and Thomas in our family and friends so that’s out, Max could be good though….

    Boys’ names are just so much harder for some reason!

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