French names with effortless chic

Before the names

Here is the French collection in genuine US use, each with its live rank.

America has loved French names before — so completely that it wore them out. Michelle reached #2 in 1968; Nicole, Danielle, Denise and Renee all sat high in the charts between the 1950s and the late 80s. That entire cohort now rests in the ranks where a generation's own names go while that generation raises children.

Today's wave draws from a different Paris. Margot, Juliette, Vivienne and Colette all stand this year at the highest ranks in their entire American records — the register is vintage and literary rather than midcentury-suburban, and the records show it arriving name by name.

Two old-timers anchor the list: Josephine, a top-25 name of 1916, is marked a comeback and sits at #53; Genevieve holds the top-150 a full century after her 1914 peak. The French classics of the Victorian-into-1920s layer are riding the same hundred-year cycle as everything else in the data.

The boys' side is thinner — six names — and Beau leads it at #60, the best rank of its record. French boys' names travel harder (Antoine and Marcel remain genuinely uncommon), which cuts both ways: less company, more spelling-aloud. The girls' side offers the reverse trade.