vintageluvs's list "Francophile Naming Guide -- Le Monde de Molière" of 20 great name ideas: Ascagne - Covielle!

Francophile Naming Guide -- Le Monde de Molière

Molière is the French Shakespeare of his time. He used and created such pastoral Greek names. Unfortunately, many of these names remain unknown and rare even in the French-speaking world. 

Ascagne

Basque

Bahys

Béline

Bélise

Béralde

Cathos

Célie

Célimène

Chrysalde

Chrysale

Cidippe

Yes, we tend to think of Claude as a male name and Claudia and Claudette as the female, but this ancient clan name is used in France for girls as well as boys, and could make a distinctively chic <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/79/boy-names-for-girls">boy name for girls</a> here too. You may be surprised to know that Claude was in fairly regular use for American girls in the 1880's and nineties, reaching as high as 553 in 1880.

 In her native country, there have been some famous female Claudes, including Queen Claude of France (1499 to 1524), daughter of Louis XII, and another sixteenth century Claude de France, daughter of Henri II.

 Later Claudes include the daughter of Claude Debussy, Claude-Emma (called Chouchou), the leading female character in Tracy Chevalier's novel Lady and the Unicorn, French actress Claude Jade and photographer Claude Cahun, and the widow of French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou.

 While the "lame" meaning is the most widely acknowledged, some etymologists theorize that the name may relate to the word for enclosure or clause, an alternate meaning that may appeal to a child with a form of this otherwise-appealing name.

Claude

There are much chicer versions of this name today, such as Claudie, Claudia, or Claude itself. Claudine is a name wobbling on the edge of extinction.

Francophile Naming Guide -- Le Monde de Molière

Ascagne

Basque

Bahys

Béline

Bélise

Béralde

Cathos

Célie

Célimène

Chrysalde

Chrysale

Cidippe

Claude

Claudine

Cléante

Cléanthis

Climène

Clitandre

Clymène

Covielle