The 187,141 names given in France since 1900 include some remarkable gems

Since 1900, INSEE has recorded every given name assigned to at least 3 people in a list. Altogether, 187,141 names have been given in France over 126 years, including some real curiosities. A number of thoroughly unlikely names have even appeared very recently.

It is summer, and whether you are on the beach or in a flat without air conditioning, it can be difficult to focus on overly serious news articles. For a little entertainment, the same institute that calculates inflation in France - up 2.1% year on year in July 2026 - also tracks every name given within the population since… 1900. There are no fewer than 187,141 different names, counted only when they have been given to at least 3 different people.

While names that are more than 100 years old, such as Louis, remain fashionable in 2026, this article is about choices that are far more open to debate. They are certainly unusual, even if they can sometimes bring to mind a city, a brand, a god, a planet or even an alcoholic drink. Consider this a warning: what follows goes beyond what you might have thought possible in France… especially when it applies to at least 3 different people.

The list of 187,000 names given in France since 1900 contains some gems

Using AI, we created an initial selection of original names. It drew our attention to Doudou, Chanel, Dream, Storm, Legend, Prince, Saturne, Venus, Zeus and Bambou. Looking through the list more widely reveals that at least 3 French people have been named Beyoncé, Mozart, Justice or simply Star. The brands category also includes Rolex, Dior, Ferrari and Nike. In the fruit and vegetable aisle, there are Mango, Kiwi, Chou and Cherry.

Among more recent names, several stand out. Alexa is an obvious example, along with Siri, Tesla and Data.

If you have spare time and want to hunt down more gems, you can download the official list of names given to at least 3 people in France since 1900. A manual search turns up further utterly eccentric names that would never have occurred to us as choices. We noted Pinar, Poesy, Pic and Phone.

It is also worth looking for names close to your own. We searched for Hadrien and found numerous alternatives, some more appealing than others: Hadrien, Adrien, Hadrian, Adrian, Hadrienne, Adrienne, Hadriel, Adriel, Hadriana, Adriana, Hadriane, Adriane, Hadriano, Adriano, Hadrielle, Adrielle, Hadri, Hadria, Adria, Hadrièl, Adrienna, Adriena, Adriene and Adrieno.

What did names in France in 1900 look like?

Some names in the dataset are more than 126 years old and are still found among the French population. Clément, David, Inès, Agnès and Frédéric are examples. Others are far less familiar today, including Césarine, Siméon, Fridolin, Scholastique, Amable and Fritz.

In recent months in France: 35 new Summers, 25 Zendayas, 20 Aws, 15 Miracles, 10 Bis and 5 Skys

INSEE updates a separate list each year, covering every name given to newborns over the preceding twelve months. Unfortunately, it only lists names that were assigned at least 5 times. Even so, it confirms that unusual choices are still being approved by the authorities. Among girls’ names, we found that 35 children were called Summer, while 25 were named Zendaya, after the American actress popular for the Dune and Spider-Man franchises.

We also noticed the 20 children named Aws. As a technology publication, that naturally makes us think of AWS, Amazon’s company, whose cloud services have propelled the American business to a market capitalisation of more than 3000 billion dollars.

For boys’ names, we found 20 Pape, 15 Cosmo, as well as 15 Miracle, 10 Bi and 5 Sky.

The most popular names in France recently

Naturally, these names are far more likely to represent just 3 people in France than several hundred thousand. Each year, INSEE also tracks the country’s most popular names. According to the latest published figures for 2025, the leading boys’ names were:

1. Gabriel, 4,625 assignments
2. Noah, 3,465 assignments
3. Léo, 3,420 assignments

The most popular girls’ names were given to fewer children than the leading boys’ names. This does not indicate a lower level of concentration or greater diversity; rather, more boys than girls were born (100,980 boys compared with 74,290 girls).

1. Louise, 3,070 assignments
2. Jade, 2,925 assignments
3. Ambre, 2,805 assignments

When we analysed all of INSEE’s data last year, we found that boys’ names, which are predominantly given to boys, were more concentrated than girls’ names, with girls receiving more varied names.

Although the number of girls born in 2025 might suggest greater concentration in their names, the figures show that a third of boys born in 2025 (33.36%) have a popular name given to more than 1000 people, compared with a quarter of girls (25.90%).