EXCLUDED. Stéphanie Rapoport, author of the first name officials, gave us her predictions in terms of tendency of first names and she found that some are disappearing.
Each year, trends are changing in terms of first names. Some soar, carried by cultural influences or personalities, while others fall into disuse. Result: these developments often influence the choices of future parents. Attracted by names in vogue or concerned with originality, they sometimes come to forget formerly common names, which gradually disappear from the civil status registers. This is precisely what is happening for several female names, told us exclusively Stéphanie Rapoport, author of The official first names (First editions), which is currently working on the next edition of its guide, which has become a reference on the subject.
“In my research, I noticed a scarcity of ancient names like Cloé, Léa, Inès and Léna who were flamboyant for several decades, from the 90s.” These first names have an accent on the letter ‘e’. “”It’s new, I had not noticed it previously, but we have a scarcity of accentuated first names. In the 1980s, there were twice as many first names that had accents “, comments the specialist. In particular, the names Cloé, Léa, Inès and Léna are down in the French civil status registers, and some of them are even less and less present in the national top 20.
So how can we explain the decline of these female first names? For Stéphanie Rapoport, this phenomenon would be partly due to an internationalization of names without accent. Nowadays, “Parents are more attracted to first names that will be able to export international, which also corresponds to the rise of first names in -ia, like Olivia or Mia”, she explains.
The observation of Stéphanie Rapoport, author of The official first names (First editions), only concerns female first names. It did not notice the phenomenon for male first names with accent. Of course, for the time being, these are only predictions, because the expert awaits the latest INSEE data on the first names awarded in France since 1900 before drawing final conclusions, which will be visible in his next work whose publication is generally scheduled for September.
