Stuck on a picking a pretty female name, preferably of French origin. Need to be able to have a shorter version, if it’s too long, because we are lazy, so something like Constance won’t work, because the only way to shorten it is Connie, and that’s a bit more modern than we need. Connie is too modern, and something like Eadgifu is too outdated. Originally, we had Margot, but she just doesn’t seem like a Margot. We kind of like Isabel. That sounds pretty and somewhat kick butt.
Help?
Home about Evangeline
That’s my vote!!! It’s beautiful.
Evangeline can be shortened to Eva or Eve or Evie. Also recommend Vianne or Sophie.
Suzanne, shortens to Suz. It is pretty awesome.
My nieces name is Angellé and her mom calls her Jelly.
Valeria meaning strong, valerous or brave. Can be shortened to Val, Eria, or Ria.
Angelique. Can be shortened to Angie, Ange, and even Gigi.
My sister’s name is Renee Deanna.
Minuet , minnie
Arielle 🙂
Heloise (as in Heloise and Abelard) could be shortened to Hel, El, Lou, Lo your choice depending on what the character is and of course who her friends are 🙂
My concern with Isabeau/Ysabeau is that Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Worlds trilogy has a fairly fabulous character in it called Ysabeau de Clermont.
Yes. Also Isabeau is the name of the main character, a succubus, in the Canadian supernatural series “Lost Girl.” The name is beautiful, though.
Angelique , Jacqueline, Domenique.
Genevieve – I call my little muffin Evie 🙂
I’m throwing out there Chantal (Tali, bonus- it means “tough like stone.), Collette (Lettie), Bijou, Angelique, Madeleine, and Nicolette (Nico). Hope it helps.
Francesca shortened to France
As I had to work through several name-books (4 daughters 😉 ) and I wanted something more unique, here some names that came on the “list” and some of it I’ve even picked (all french):
Yolanda (Andy), Jaqueline (Linny), Adrien(n)e, Nadine, Veronique, Julienne, Amelia, Vivienne, Yvonne and last but not least Yvette.
Arielle meaning the lion of god. Nicknames could be Ari, Elle, Ellie or even Ri. It’s a strong warrior name fitting of a tough heroine 🙂
What about Eleanor? As in Eleanor of Aquitaine…
Actually, in France, it was Aliénor or Eléonore.
Eleanor is the English version of that name (just learned that because I googled it to check).
Lise or Lisette
Margot
Margaux
Marguerite
Iona
Madeleine
Aurélie
Aurore
Celeste
Zoe
Xena – Warrior Princess!
Daliya…. I know it’s not French but it’s a pretty uncommon name, though I say so myself.. :p ..Nicknames could be Dal, Dals or Dali…. Alternate spellings like Dhalia, Dalia and Dhaliah are also there….
Melissande, a beautiful name.
What about Vivianne, or Jaquline?? Vid or Jaq for short.
Lucille? It means “shining” and can be shortened to Lucy or Luce.
How about Fiona
Aribella
Marguerite? She can still be Meg or any of the other (many!) nicknames for Margaret, as well as Rita or Reet.
Alizée
Danae
Anaïs
Camille
Lilou
Maëlys
Manon
Lucie
Josephine, Short forms, Joe, Josie. Meaning she shall add.
Oh! This is my chance to propose my grandmother’s name: Oriane. She loved when I called her Ria or Riane with my Spanish accent, but I remember that some people called her Oria or Orie.
Also Éliane, shortened to Lia.
Isabeau….Izzy, Bo
Evangeline….Vange, Lina
Wlihelmina….Willa, Mina, Willie
Vivienne……..Enna, Vi
Jocelyn……….Joss, Jess, Lyn, Cel, Cellie, Jo
Carolina (caroleena) Caro, Lina
I like Vivienne
This will be buried, but I wanted to put my two cents into the bucket:
Sabine
Anouk
Solange
My Great Aunt’s name was unique, Nacha. Not sure if it was French but it was a cool name.
Eloise
Lidwina … it is a Dutch/German origin but they have the French version : Lydwine …. or Wina for short