# French names in Lebanon



## DrLindenbrock

Hi, 
apparently it is common for Lebanese Christians to give French name to their sons and daughters.
Since some of them are now very common, I was wondering whether there was a standard spelling for them. I wrote down the ones I heard the most, with my attempted spelling.
Could you please check it out? By the way, I would like to stick to names that are truly used in Lebanon, not just any French name.
Up until now I've only heard male names... is it as common to give a female a French name or is it mostly done for males?
All right, here my still-very-short list.
Thanks!  

Pierre /بيير
Camille /كاميل
Émile /إميل
Michel /ميشل
François /فرنسوا
Victor /فيكتور


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## cherine

DrLindenbrock said:


> Up until now I've only heard male names... is it as common to give a female a French name or is it mostly done for males?


There are female French names too. The one I could remember for now is *Pascale* باسكال like the Lebanese singer باسكال مشعلاني
(Edit: ok, I checked a songs' site and found these names of other Lebanese female singers, maybe some of the names are not really French, so please excuse my ignorance  )
*Dominique* دومينيك
*Elaine* إلين
*Carole* كارول
*Micheline* ميشلين
*Nicole* نيكول


As for the male names, here are my thoughts:
Pierre /بيير   But I remember also seeing بيار
Camille /كاميل  I'm not sure about this one.
Émile /إميل  
Michel /ميشل We, in Egypt, write this one with another yaa2 ميشيل , maybe others would write ميشال  but I don't remember seeing it this way ميشل
François /فرنسوا  and also فرانسوا 
Victor /فيكتور


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## WadiH

Pierre = بيار
Camille = كميل
Michel = ميشيل

The rest seem about right. Don't forget:

Louis = لويس
Raymond = ريمون
Antoine = أنطون
Tony = طوني


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## DrLindenbrock

شکرا جزیلا لکم یا شیرین ووادي حنيفة​As for the spelling of Pierre, I recall seeing it spelled بيير on Al-Jazeera, but then you are telling me about the spelling بيار , which still makes me wonder about the existence of a standard spelling.
Let me phrase it this way; when you want to register a son whose name is Mu7ammad, the spelling is clearly محمد.
What happens if the name is Pierre? Is there an official spelling, of it's all about the clerk's or the parents' choice?
I wouldn't ask this question in the case of a name like, say, William, because I know it's definitely a foreign name in an Arab country.
But some of these French names in Lebanon seem to be so common that I thought there might be something like guidelines or other way of trying to standardize the spelling.​ 
Unfortunately, the fact the even the name François has two accepted spellings seems to disappoint my eagerness for standaridization... ​ 
Again thank you very much for your help!​


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## WadiH

I don't think the clerk will impose a standardized spelling,  but let me just say that بيار is far, far more common than بيير which is used more for transcription of the names of non-Arabic-speaking "Pierres".


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## Josh_

I believe that كاميليا is a common female name in the Arabic world, which at first glance seems like a feminine form of Camille كاميل , but I don't know if it is necessarily from French.  I always thought it came from the root ك- م- ل .

As far as the بيار vs. بيير thing, if Google can be trusted both spellings are fairly common and have almost equal occurrence:

بيار = 222,000
بيير = 273,000


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## zooz

Wadi Hanifa said:


> I don't think the clerk will impose a standardized spelling,  but let me just say that بيار is far, far more common than بيير which is used more for transcription of the names of non-Arabic-speaking "Pierres".



Allow me to disagree with that version. I'll not say I've never seen it before, but بيار doesn't correspond in any way to the pronunciation of Pierres in French.


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## WadiH

Josh Adkins said:


> As far as the بيار vs. بيير thing, if Google can be trusted both spellings are fairly common and have almost equal occurrence:
> 
> بيار = 222,000
> بيير = 273,000


 
Yes but how many of the بيير hits correspond to transcriptions of foreign names, and how many of the بيار hits correspond to names of Lebanese?

It's hard to determine from google since most of the بيار hits refer to Pierre Gemayyel.  I've encountered a lot more بيار's than بيير's myself but I guess I could be wrong.


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## MarcB

Marcel Khalife *مارسيل خليفة* .


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## cherine

DrLindenbrock said:


> شکرا جزیلا لکما یا شیرین ووادي حنيفة​
> ​


​عفوًا د. ليندبروك
​

> Let me phrase it this way; when you want to register a son whose name is Mu7ammad, the spelling is clearly محمد.
> What happens if the name is Pierre? Is there an official spelling, of it's all about the clerk's or the parents' choice?
> I wouldn't ask this question in the case of a name like, say, William, because I know it's definitely a foreign name in an Arab country.


Actually we do have Williams ويليام 
As for standardization, it's a hard thing for a simple reason: these names are not Arabic, so there are no fixed or strict rules for writing them; only common or not so common ways.​ 
Concerning Pierre: I think it's more common in Egypt to write it بيير (not that it's a common name here, but I met at least one Egyptian Pierre in my life).
I think Lebanese write بيار more often than بيير , but I can't tell for sure.

As for Kamelia كاميليا it's used as a flower's name (we have many girls' names taken from flowers: Dalia/Dahlia, Passinte, Warda...). I mean we don't really consider it a "foreign" name like the others.


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## DrLindenbrock

Oops sorry Cherine... I'm not used to using the dual / al-muthannà...it really didn't occur to me to use it in that sentence! (Of course, I know how to form it and use it).

As for the googling and the fact that these aren't Arabic names, guys, I see your point.
But see, I asked if there was a standard spelling of names like Pierre and Michel because they seem so common now that I wondered whether they had kind of become "Arab names".

Hm, Cherine, are there really many Arabs named William? I know you can (obviously) have any name spelled in Arabic, but do Arabs really carry this name?



> I don't think the clerk will impose a standardized spelling,


Thanks, this answers one of my questions!  



> but let me just say that بيار is far, far more common than بيير which is used more for transcription of the names of non-Arabic-speaking "Pierres".


 
All right! Just let me point out that I decided to post this thread after:
- meeting a Lebanese guy called Camille
- hearing about Michel Aoun
- reading about Pierre Gemayyel

As for the latter, Al-Jazeera spelled his name as بيير .
Is it possible that the "real" spelling in this case was بيار but the journalist in charge of the news scroll just wrote it the other way (like spelling Stephen* Spielberg instead of Steven, although the person in question uses the latter) ?


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## Nikola

Even in other langs. there are alternate ways of spelling names Steven/Stephan is a good example.
Some Syrians and North Africans especially non-muslim minorities have Frenchnames also. I have a Syrian female friend named Simone سيمون.


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## Farfoura

Hello,

I am Lebanese and French and I am thinking to call my daughter Annabel.
I am worried that in Arabic it would sound like Ana belle ( I am beautiful).
What do you think ?

Thanks for your advise


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## ahmedcowon

cherine said:


> Actually we do have Williams ويليام



Actually Arab Williams are وليم , None-Arab Williams are ويليام

الأستاذ وليم حنا is correct while الأستاذ ويليام حنا is not


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## tounsi51

I am have question about Sonia which also an Arabic name and we write it سونيا

I saw in a Lebanon tv written صونيا


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## cherine

Farfoura said:


> I am Lebanese and French and I am thinking to call my daughter Annabel.
> I am worried that in Arabic it would sound like Ana belle ( I am beautiful).


It's true that it can create a bit of confusion because of the first par "ana" which is the same as "I". But if you like the name, go for it. Western names in general are becoming more and more used in many Arab countries.
As long as the name can't be confused with something negative, you don't need to worry.


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## bentir

hello,

There was a big wave of christian Syrian and Lebanese immigration to Brazil in the early 20th century, most people spelled their surnames in a french way, as french culture was a big thing in the Mediterranean back then. One of these surnames is Daux. Does anyone know how it is supposed to pronounce this name? Most people here in Brazil say "dows" "dowsh" or "dowzh".


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## Bazi

DrLindenbrock said:


> Could you please check it out? By the way, I would like to stick to names that are truly used in Lebanon, not just any French name.
> Up until now I've only heard male names... is it as common to give a female a French name or is it mostly done for males?



When I was in Beirut, I had a male friend called Rudy. His sister's name was Rita. Unfortunately I have no idea whatsoever about the arabic spelling of their names.


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## RayanAlArabi

These are quite old french names if you allow me to make a little remark haha.
It is suprising to see that in former french colonies (except the Maghreb), people have kept such names that would make giggle any french speaker.


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## Mahaodeh

RayanAlArabi said:


> It is suprising to see that in former french colonies



Actually, these names are much older than the French occupation in the twentieth century. They may make a French speaker giggle today but when they started to be used during the 11th and 12th centuries, they probably did not. At the time the French spoke Old French. The adoption of the names by the Christians of the region is related to the Crusades, not to the French occupation and later mandate. Some of these names may even be older, pre-Islamic. However, the older ones were better Arabised and standardised and were borrowed from Latin.


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## Hemza

RayanAlArabi said:


> It is suprising to see that in former french colonies (*except the Maghreb*), people have kept such names that would make giggle any french speaker.



Actually old (but not necessarily) French names are found amongst Jewish Maghrebis.


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## RayanAlArabi

Hemza said:


> Actually old (but not necessarily) French names are found amongst Jewish Maghrebis.



Yes it's true, I had forgotten that. You made me remind of a very very famous french-tunisian jewish host called *Cyril *Hanouna.


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## lubnaanii

Wadi Hanifa said:


> Pierre = بيار
> Camille = كميل
> Michel = ميشيل
> 
> The rest seem about right. Don't forget:
> 
> Louis = لويس
> Raymond = ريمون
> Antoine = أنطون
> Tony = طوني



Michel could also be spelled ميشال.  In Lebanese Arabic the alif (ا) is pronounced as an long ash /æː/ or long /ɛː/ depending on the speaker.



bentir said:


> One of these surnames is Daux. Does anyone know how it is supposed to pronounce this name? Most people here in Brazil say "dows" "dowsh" or "dowzh".



This surname is probably the surname ضو, which appears to be a corruption of the word ضوء, which means "light".  It is usually spelled Daou in French and is pronounced /dˤɑu/ or "dawu"


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## bentir

lubnaanii said:


> Michel could also be spelled ميشال.  In Lebanese Arabic the alif (ا) is pronounced as an long ash /æː/ or long /ɛː/ depending on the speaker.
> 
> 
> 
> This surname is probably the surname ضو, which appears to be a corruption of the word ضوء, which means "light".  It is usually spelled Daou in French and is pronounced /dˤɑu/ or "dawu"


Thank you, very much.

Do you think it might be a religious surname? Portuguese surname Luz (light) is, usually, a reference to the catholic holiday Candlemas.


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