French names that start with the letter 'C'

French names that start with the letter ‘C’ don't all begin with the same sound. In French, the letter 'C' is pronounced in different ways, depending on the letter that follows it.

French names like Camille, Claude, and Clémence have a hard 'C' sound, similar to the letter 'K'. In contrast, names like Céline, Cécile, and Célestine have a soft 'C' sound that resembles an 'S'.

In addition, names like Charlène and Chantal start with the whisper-like “sh” sound that is produced by the letter combination 'ch' in French.

French girl names that start with 'C'

French girl names that start with the letter 'C' can be classified into several groups. The first group consists of those where the 'C' has a soft sound, resembling the letter 'S'.

In French, the letter combination ‘ch’ can produce a sound resembling the ‘sh’ sound in English. So among French girl names that start with ‘C’, there are some which begin with a whispering “shh..” sound.

Another group of French girl names that start with the letter 'C' is those where the 'C' has a hard sound, resembling the letter 'K'.

In French, many names begin with the letter ‘C’ because the letter ‘K’ is rarely used in French. In fact, none of the thousand most common French words contain the letter ‘K’. As a result, names that begin with ‘K’ in some Germanic languages have French equivalents that start with ‘C’.

French boy’s names that start with 'C'

French last names that start with 'C'

If you ask a French person about last names starting with the letter ‘C’, they may mention Louis-Ferdinand Céline, the controversial author of the novel “Journey to the End of the Night”. But Céline is just his pen name; his real name is Louis Ferdinand Destouches.

Here is a list of common French surnames that begin with the letter ‘C’: