French name
French names typically consist of one or multiple given names, and a surname. One given name, usually the first, and the surname are used in a person's daily life, with the other given names used mainly in official documents. Middle names, in the English sense, do not exist. Initials are not used to represent second or further given names.
Traditionally, most French people were given names from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. However, given names for French citizens from immigrant communities are often from their own culture, and in modern France it has become increasingly common to use first names of English or other foreign origin. Almost all traditional given names are gender-specific, but a few are not. Many female given names are feminine forms of traditional masculine French names. The prevalence of given names follows trends, with some names being popular in some years, and some considered out-of-fashion. Compound given names are not uncommon. First names are chosen by the child's parents. Nowadays, there are no legal a priori constraints on the choice of names, though this was not always the case as recently as a few decades ago. To change a given name, a request can be made before a court, but except in a few specific cases, one must prove a legitimate interest for the change.
Children in France were until 2005 required by law to take the surname of their father, unless the father was unknown and the child was given the family name of the mother. Since 2005, parents can give their children either of their names, or a hyphenation of both, subject to a limit of at most two hyphenated names. In case the two parents cannot come to an agreement, both of their family names are used and hyphenated in alphabetical order; if one of them already has a hyphenated surname, only one word, the first surname, is taken from each parent. The ratio of the number of family names to the population is high in France, primarily because most surnames had many orthographic and dialectal variants, which were then registered as separate names. Contrary to the practice of some other countries, French women do not legally change names when they marry; however, it is customary that they adopt their husband's name as a "usage name" for daily life. This distinction is important because many official documents use the person's maiden, or legal or true surname, rather than their usage name. Some artists change their real name to their stage name, but truly changing one's last name, as opposed to adopting a usage name, is a quite complex legal process.
Styles and forms of address
Madame, Mademoiselle, Monsieur
In normal polite usage, a person's name is usually preceded by:- Monsieur, for a male ; pronounced ; plural: messieurs, pronounced ; abbreviation: singular M.; plural: MM.. The singular form Mr is very often found, but is considered incorrect by purists, although it appears in some dictionaries.
- Madame, for a married female ; pronounced ; plural: mesdames, pronounced ; abbreviation: Mme; plural: Mmes. Madame must also be used when one does not know whether the addressed woman is married or not, and when one does not know whether the addressed woman may consider the use of Mademoiselle as discriminating or disrespectful.
- Mademoiselle, for an unmarried female ; pronounced ; plural: mesdemoiselles, pronounced ; abbreviation: Mlle or Mle; plural: Mlles or Mles. This form of address is informal and is now tending to be less used in favour of madame by some groups such as feminist movements because they consider the usage to be discriminating and disrespectful. However, one tendency that remains fairly common is the addressing of young-looking females mademoiselle, and older females madame. Actresses are usually always styled mademoiselle, especially in film or theatre credits, regardless of their age or personal situation; one would thus read mademoiselle Deneuve est habillée par Soandso.
- Mondamoiseau is an archaic term historically used for a gentleman that had not yet reached the status of chevalier, and was used in a similar fashion as the modern mademoiselle; plural: mesdemoiseaux. The term has not been in common use since the 17th century, but it can be found in works of classic French literature, such as Molière's L'Avare.
- Maître, for males and females ; this title is used by lawyers and few other juridical professions, while carrying out their duties, and for some mature male artists; plural: maîtres; abbreviation: Me; there is no abbreviation for maîtres, one should use Me X and Me Y.
- Docteur, for males and females ; this title is reserved for people having a doctorate but tend to be mostly used in everyday language for physicians and dentists while carrying out their duties, even when still students thus not having yet a doctorate; plural: docteurs; abbreviation: Dr. The feminine form docteure is becoming more common. The feminine form doctoresse is now old-fashioned but can still be used, especially when speaking of a female physician.
A traditional address to a crowd of people is Mesdames, Messieurs or Mesdames, Mesdemoiselles, Messieurs—whose order of words represents decreasing degrees of respect. An informal variant is Messieurs-Dames; it is considered as ill-mannered by purists.
It is normally impolite to address people by their given names unless one is a family member, a friend or a close colleague of comparable hierarchic importance. One also does not address people by their last name only unless in a work environment. Also, contrary to English or German usage, it is considered impolite to address someone as monsieur X when talking to that person: a mere monsieur should be used, monsieur X being reserved for talking about M. X to another person.
When speaking of someone, monsieur/madame given name family name, by far the most polite form of address, is generally reserved for the most solemn occasions. Monsieur/madame family name or given name family name is polite and used in normal formal occasions, as well as in the formal quality press. By contrast, in colloquial usage the family names of personalities are used alone. Formally, a married or widowed woman can be called by the given name of her husband family name or madame veuve ; this is now slightly out of fashion, except on formal invitation cards (in France, on a formal invitation card, the traditional formula is always a variant of "Madame Jean Dupont recevra...". The traditional use of the first name of the woman's husband is now felt in this context as a way to include the husband as equally inviting alongside his wife, while keeping the tradition of reception being formally held by the wife.
In the workplace or in academic establishments, particularly in a male-dominated environment, it is quite common to refer to male employees by their family name only, but to use madame or mademoiselle before the names of female employees.
Military
A military officer is addressed by his rank. Male officers of the Army, the Gendarmerie and the Air Force are addressed as Mon by inferior ranks and deferential civilians. This usage is said not to be the possessive pronoun mon, but an abbreviation of monsieur: consequently, women are not referred to with mon, but with the rank alone.As a punishment by Napoléon Bonaparte, Navy officers have not been addressed as mon since the Battle of Trafalgar. Confusingly, the title generally does not match the rank, but rather an equivalent rank in other forces: lieutenant is the form of address for an enseigne de vaisseau, capitaine for a lieutenant de vaisseau, and commandant for a capitaine de corvette, frégate, or vaisseau.
The commanding officer of a ship is also addressed as commandant, regardless of his/her actual rank.
In everyday written contexts, ranks are abbreviated.
Given names
French people have at least one given name. Usually, only one of them is used in daily life; any others are solely for official documents, such as passports or certificates. Thus, one always speaks of Jacques Chirac and never of Jacques René Chirac; Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain is always referred to as Philippe Pétain, because Philippe was the given name that he used in daily life. Middle names in the English sense do not exist; initials are never used for second or further given names. For example, although English-speaking scientific publications may cite Claude Allègre as Claude J. Allègre, this is not done in French-speaking publications.Second and further given names, when given, typically honour a child's grandparents, great-grandparents, or other ancestors. The practice of giving two or even three names has since fallen slightly out of fashion, but remains more common in upper-class milieus.
Traditionally and historically, most people were given names from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. Common names of this type are Jacques, Jean, Michel, Pierre, and Jean-Baptiste for males; and Marie, Jeanne, Marguerite, Françoise, and Élisabeth for females. In certain regions such as Brittany or Corsica, more local names are often used. However, given names for French citizens from immigrant communities are often from their own culture, such as Mohammed, Karim, Saïd, Toufik, Jorge, etc. for males, Fatima, Fatoumata, etc. for females. Furthermore, in recent decades it has become common to use first names of English or other foreign origin, mainly in the popular classes of society, such as Kevin, Enzo, or Anthony for males; for females, Jessica, Jennifer, Karine or Barbara. Also, females are often given names like Jacqueline and Géraldine that are feminine forms of traditional common masculine French names.
The prevalence of given names follows trends, with some names being popular in some years, and some considered definitely out-of-fashion. As an example, few children born since 1970 would bear the name Germaine, which is generally associated with the idea of an elderly lady. However, as noted above, such old-fashioned names are frequently used as second or third given names, because in France the second or further given names are traditionally those of the godparents or the grandparents. Some older names, such as Suzanne, Violette, and Madeleine, have become fashionable again in the upper class and in the upper middle class. Others such as Jean, Pierre, Louis, and François never really went out of fashion. Alexandre was never very popular, but is not uncommon in middle and upper classes.
Almost all traditional given names are gender-specific. However, a few given names, such as Dominique, Claude, and Camille, are given to both males and females; for others, the pronunciation is the same but the spelling is different: Frédéric / Frédérique. In medieval times, a woman was often named Philippe, now an exclusively masculine name, or a male Anne, now almost exclusively feminine. From the mid-19th century into the early 20th century, Marie was a popular first name for both men or women, however, before and after that period it has been almost exclusively given to women as a first given name, although it is sometimes given to males as second or third given name, especially in devout Catholic families.
Compound given names, such as Jean-Luc, Jean-Paul and Anne-Sophie are not uncommon. These are not considered to be two separate given names. The second part of a compound name may be a given name normally used by the opposite sex. However, the gender of the compound is determined by the first component. Thus, Marie-George Buffet has a given name considered as female because it begins with Marie, and George is spelled with a final -e like all the traditional French female given names, instead of Georges with -es for a male. The feminine component in male compound names is mostly Marie, as in Jean-Marie Vianney. In the past, some Frenchmen would have Marie or Anne as first name, which is still nowadays in practice in rare traditional Catholic families. Second or third given names, which usually are kept private, may also include names normally used by the opposite gender. For instance, in 2006, 81 Frenchmen have Brigitte among their given names, 97 Catherine, 133 Anne, and 204 Julie. In addition to the above-described custom of using Marie for males, this is due to the habit of traditional Catholic French families to give children the names of their godmother and godfather: if there is no counterpart of the opposite gender for the name of the godparent who is not of the same sex as the child, generally the name of the godparent will be left as such. For instance, a male child born to a traditional Catholic family choosing for him the name Nicolas and whose godparents are called Christian and Véronique could be called Nicolas Christian Marie Véronique.
First names are chosen by the child's parents. There are no legal a priori constraints on the choice of names nowadays, but this has not always been the case. The choice of given names, originally limited only by the tradition of naming children after a small number of popular saints, was restricted by law at the end of the 18th century, could be accepted. Much later, actually in 1966, a new law permitted a limited number of mythological, regional or foreign names, substantives, diminutives, and alternative spellings. Only in 1993 were French parents given the freedom to name their child without any constraint whatsoever. However, if the birth registrar thinks that the chosen names may be detrimental to the child's interests, or to the right of other families to protect their own family name, the registrar may refer the matter to the local prosecutor, who may choose to refer the matter to the local court. The court may then refuse the chosen names. Such refusals are rare and mostly concern given names that may expose the child to mockery.
To change a given name, a request can be made before a court, but except in a few specific cases, it is necessary to prove a legitimate interest for the change.