Prénoms & names.

after a Melu's idea...

A lot of French names have an English equivalent. For example, Marie = Mary, Pierre = Peter (short: Pete), ...

But be careful !

Jean is a feminine name in English, whereas Jean is a masculine name in French*. The equivalent of the French “Jean” is John.

Jack is one of the pet names of John; the equivalent of the French “Jacques” is James (nicknames: Jamie, Jim, Jimmy...).

Some (unfortunately not all proof!) rules exist:

French	English
Gu-	W-
Guillaume	William
-au-	-al-
Thibaut	Thibalt
-ie	-y
Lucie	Lucy
-ne	-n
Liliane	Lilian

Pet names:

“Johnny” or “Jonny”? It’s easy: Johnny (like Johnny Depp) is one of the pet names of John, whereas Jonny (like Jonny Wilkinson) is one of the pet names of Jonathan.

Elizabeth has a lot of pet names: Liz, Liza, Lizzie, Lizzy, Lizbeth, Beth, Bethie, Bethy, Bessie, Bessy, Bettie, Betty, Libbie, Libby...

Some other examples:

Robert: Rob, Roby, Robby, Bob, Boby, Bert, Berty...

Nathaly: Nat, Natty,...

William: Will, Willy, Bill, Billy...

Michael: Mick, Mike, Micky, Mickey…

Matthew= Matt, Matty...

Letice: Lettie, Letty

Catharine (Katherine) : Cat, Caty, Cathie, Kat, Katie, Kathy...

In many case, -y or –ie is the suffix used to make the pet name (Ginevra < Ginny); we also can use the short name (Ronald < Ron). But be careful again: Terry can be either a masculine name, or the pet name of the feminine name Teresa.

* For the film “Le Boucher”, the French actor Jean Yanne received the Best-Actress Price meanwhile the actress Stéphane Audran received the Best-Actor Price!

Comments

[Melu]

thanks ETK !! see you soon