Common French Male First Names, Translations and Roots

Prior to the 20th century, most French boys were named similarly, especially the further back in time one goes.

Most of these names came from the Bible's New Testament, Catholic early saints, occasionally the Old Testament or French royalty.

The Catholic tradition was for each boy to have a unique name, combined with the name Joseph as a second or middle name. But some priests wanted all boys to be named Joseph first, and occasionally placed the name Joseph as first name without the consent of the parents. So a Joseph name may not be the name the boy or man actually went by, but rather, his name may have simply been the second listed name

The practice of switching the order of the names was much more commonly done with girls though, than boys.

At some point in time, boys were given a first, second and third name to go with their surname. In this instance, all boys' third name had to be Joseph. The tradition continues in the Catholic Church to this day.

Though girls names often were adapted from male names, never did the opposite occur where a boy's name was the masculinized version of a female saint.

Though some boys had names that came the Old Testament names, the frequency of use of these names was extremely low.

The following lists all of the common first male names spelled correctly in French, with the source of the name and the English translation where it's not obvious:

Adam ................... Adam, of the Old Testament
Aäron ................... Aaron, of the Old Testament
Aimé
Amable
Andre ................... Saint Andrew
Baptiste ................ Saint John the Baptist
Claude................... Saint Claude
David..................... David of the Old Testament
Denis or Denys ... Saint Denis
Emerance?
Etienne
François ............... Saint Francis
François-Xavier .. Saint Francis
Gabriel ................. Angel Gabriel
Giles
Honore or Honoré
Hugues
Jacques ................. from Jacob and thus Jack
Jean ....................... Saint John, evangelist
Jean-Baptiste ....... Saint John the Baptist
Joseph ................... Saint Joseph, stepfather of Jesus
Lazarus
Léo ......................... Many saint popes of this name
Louis ...................... Saint and French king Louis
Marc ...................... Saint Mark, evangelist .... from French Marc
Mathieu ................. Saint Matthew
Mathurin ............... Saint Matthew, from French Mathieu
Martin .................... Saint Martin
Michel ..................... Archangel Michael, from French Michel
Moïse ...................... Moses, of the Old Testament
Moÿse ..................... Moses, older spelling
Nicolas .................... Saint Nicholas
Noé ......................... Noah, of the Old Testament
Paul .........................Saint Paul, from French Paul
Pierre ..................... Saint Peter, from French Pierre
Raphael .................. Angel Raphael
René
Simon...................... Saint Simon in the New Testament
Solomon ................. Solomon, of the Old Testament
Thomas................... Saint Thomas
Vincent ................... Saint Vincent
Xavier