French baby names are retro & international for 2018
Jade, Emma, Gabriel and Eden: “Retro” first names are coming back into fashion in France, with the most popular names also suggesting an international flair.
For 2017-18, the names Louise, Emma and Jade were the top three girls’ names, with Gabriel, Raphaël and Jules topping the list for the boys.
These names are said to have a retro air, having been slowly rising from their previously-forgotten popularity over the past 20-30 years, to become ever more “in fashion” for today’s generations.
The list is created by combining figures from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (l’Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (L’Insee)) with data from the country’s major towns.
The top 50 names for both boys and girls are changing rapidly, the new figures show.
Other popular girls’ names have included those ending with ‘ia’, such as Julia, Victoria, Mia, and Olivia, which have been described as more evidence of names’ growing “international side”, by Stéphanie Rapoport, author of the Official Book of First Names 2018 (L’Officiel des Prénoms 2018), speaking to French news source BFMTV.
Gabriel is also one of a growing number of names attributed to the Old Testament of the Bible, another trend seen in names’ changing popularity.
“What’s interesting about names from the Old Testament,” explained Rapoport, “Is that while Gabriel and Raphaël are generally well-known, we have seen Eden, for example, [rise significantly], even though Eden was previously nearly unknown [as a name] before the year 2000.”
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Parents are also said to be more ready to adopt names taken from other cultures and languages, with examples collected by BFMTV including “Lila” and “Kali”.
Much-watched television shows also have an impact; Arya has been growing in popularity after the strong and feisty character Arya Stark, played by Maisie Williams in HBO TV series Game of Thrones.
