Many French first names begin with the letter ‘M’. These include options like Marie, Marianne, Margot, and Marion (for girls), as well as options like Marcel, Maurice, and Maxime (for boys).
The popularity of ‘M’ as a first letter for names may not be entirely coincidental.
The letter ‘M’ represents a fundamental sound that babies learn to pronounce early on. That explains why, in many different languages, the word for “mom” starts with the letter ‘M’ (that word is “maman” in French).
🎧 Click on a name to hear its pronunciation
🎧 Click on a name to hear its pronunciation
Among French girl names that start with ‘M’, the most widely used is likely Marie (when I was in school in France, there were often two girls named Marie in the same classroom).
While Marie might be the most common of these names, the most quintessentially French is perhaps Marianne because it is the name of the personification of the French Republic.
As you can see, there are a lot of French girl names that begin with the letter ‘M.’ In our list of 500 French girl names, about 23% of them start with the letter ‘M.’
That is a lot, considering that if you pick a random letter from the alphabet, there would be about a 4% chance that that letter would be ‘M.’
Marie is such a popular French name —and many compound first names also start with “Marie” (see the table further down).
I grew up in France during the 80s and 90s and never had a classmate named Martine. A few decades earlier, though, this name was quite popular —maybe because of a series of French children’s books (by Gilbert Delahaye and Marcel Marlier) titled “Martine” that was first published in 1954.
The French name Monique comes from the Latin name Monica.
This name can also be spelled as Michelle. In both cases, it is the feminine form of the name Michel.
The name Madeleine comes from the name of a biblical figure, Marie Madeleine (Mary Magdalene in English). The etymology of this name can be traced further back to the town of Magdala in Galilee.
This French female name is also the name of a flower. In French, the word “marguerite” means “daisy”.
This French girl’s name has connections to opera. “Manon Lescaut” is an opera by Puccini. And “Manon” is an opera by Jules Massenet
The French name Marine comes from the Latin word “marinus,” meaning “of the sea”. It has the same origin as the English adjective “marine”.
The name Marion is a diminutive of Marie.
“Mireille” is also the name of a French opera composed by Charles Gounod.
This French name corresponds to the English name Martha.
(alternate spelling: Magalie) Magali is a name that comes from the region of Provence, in the south of France. It is likely derived from the name Marie-Madeleine (Maria Magdalena in Latin).
Breton is a Celtic language from Brittany in western France. Many Breton names are also used in French (sometimes they undergo some spelling changes). Maelys (often spelled Maëlys in French) is one of these Breton names.
The name “Morgane” comes from Breton, a Celtic language from the region of Brittany in western France. The name is formed from the words “mor” (sea) and “gane” (born).
(also spelled as “Murielle”) This name is of Celtic origin.
Maeva is a French name that comes from a Tahitian word meaning “welcome”. Tahiti is an island in French Polynesia. This name can also be spelled as Maëva.
In addition to being a girl’s name, “Margaux” is also a famous wine-producing region in Bordeaux, France.
Maryvonne is a name formed by combining the names Marie and Yvonne.
Mégane is the French version of the Welsh name Megan. The French car maker Renault used this name for one of its cars.
Margot is a shortened form of the name Marguerite. Alexandre Dumas (the author of The Count of Monte Cristo) also wrote a historical novel titled “La Reine Margot,” which likely contributed to the popularity of this name.
This female name is formed by adding the suffix -ette to the male name Maurice.
This is a French name of Celtic origin. The two dots show that the adjacent vowels are pronounced separately, rather than being merged together as a diphthong. This name can also be spelled as Maelle.
The name Mylène is a contraction of the names Marie and Hélène.
Marianne is a French female name formed by merging the names Marie and Anne. In France, Marianne is a personification of the French Republic, and she represents the national motto “Liberté, égalité, fraternité.”
Maïwenn is a feminine first name of Breton origin that combines two other names: “Marie” and “Gwenn”.
Breton, a Celtic language from the western part of France, is the origin of a few French girl names that start with ‘M’, for instance: Maëlle, Maëlys, and Maiwenn.
| Name | Occupation |
|---|---|
| Marcel Proust | French novelist who wrote “In Search of Lost Time” |
| Marie Curie | French-Polish scientist who won two Nobel Prizes (one in Physics, the other in Chemistry) |
| Marcel Pagnol | French writer who wrote the autobiographical novel “La Gloire de mon père” |
| Michel de Montaigne | 16th-century French philosopher |
| Marguerite Duras | 20th-century French novelist |
| Michel Houellebecq | best-selling French author who wrote “Les Particules élémentaires” |
| Marcel Duchamp | French artist |
| Michel Foucault | French philosopher and historian |
| Matthieu Ricard | well-known French Buddhist monk with a PhD in molecular genetics who has written many books |
| Marie-Antoinette | Queen of France just before the French Revolution |
| Marcel Carné | French film director |
| Maximilien Robespierre | influential figure during the French Revolution |
| Marion Cotillard | French actress |
| Michel Platini | French soccer player |
| Maurice Ravel | French composer whose best-known work is perhaps “Boléro.” |
| Mylène Farmer | French-Canadian singer |