The most popular baby names of 2025 in France are Louise for girls (3,070 births) and Gabriel for boys (4,625). That is what the first-names file published by Insee (France’s national statistics office) on 16 July 2026 shows. Behind this ranking, a study released on 16 September 2026 reveals a deeper shift: 65,940 distinct first names were given in 2025, compared with 8,007 in 1946. A name at the top of the chart now accounts for just 1% of births.
Most popular baby names of 2025: the top 10 for girls and boys
The figures below come from Insee and are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5. They cover the first name entered in the civil register for children born in France in 2025.
Girls
- Louise: 3,070
- Jade: 2,925
- Ambre: 2,805
- Alma: 2,500
- Alba: 2,360
- Rose: 2,320
- Emma: 2,310
- Romy: 2,245
- Adèle: 2,225
- Alice: 2,130
Boys
- Gabriel: 4,625
- Noah: 3,465
- Léo: 3,420
- Raphaël: 3,285
- Louis: 3,260
- Jules: 3,040
- Arthur: 2,875
- Léon: 2,835
- Adam: 2,810
- Maël: 2,700
The gap between the top two is clear for boys, with Gabriel ahead of Noah by 1,160 births. It is much tighter for girls, with Louise only 145 ahead of Jade. The ten most popular girls’ names add up to around 24,900 births and the ten most popular boys’ names to around 32,300, out of 643,900 births in total.
Why the most popular name now accounts for just 1% of births
The study “80 ans de prénoms : de plus en plus de diversité” (80 years of first names: more and more diversity), by Amandine Rodrigues in the Insee Première series, traces the trend since 1946. That year, Jean was given to 53,380 boys, or 12.0% of male births, and Marie to 31,090 girls, or 7.3%. In 2025, Gabriel represents 1.4% of boys and Louise 1.0% of girls.
Concentration has fallen in the same proportion. The top five names covered 32.5% of boys and 21.3% of girls in 1946; in 2025 they cover only 5.5% and 4.3%. Per 10,000 births, the number of different names rose from 113 to 1,131 for girls and from 86 to 994 for boys.
Of the 864,600 distinct first names recorded over 80 years, around 607,000 were given only once. In 2025, the 65,940 names break down into 33,240 used only for girls, 30,311 used only for boys and 2,389 given to children of both sexes.
Are girls’ names more varied than boys’ names?
Yes, across the whole period. Insee puts forward two explanations. Girls’ names are often formed from boys’ names by adding suffixes, which multiplies the combinations. Boys’ names, on the other hand, are more often passed down from one generation to the next, which slows their renewal. Girls’ names are also more sensitive to fashion.
This passing-down shows in the “timeless” names, meaning those given at least 100 times every year since 1946. There are 39 of them, and they accounted for 18% of births in 1946, compared with 6% in 2025. That year, 731 boys in 10,000 bore one of them, against 388 girls. Marie was given 701,260 times over 80 years, Jean 690,090 times. Marie peaked at 32,780 in 1947; it was given 510 times in 2025.
Ever shorter trends
By the early 2000s, the time a name stays at the top had shrunk to “just under ten years”, the study notes. Each generation has its headliners: Marie and Jean for baby boomers, Nathalie and Christophe for Generation X, Aurélie and Nicolas for Generation Y, Léa and Lucas for Generation Z.
The 2025 ranking also shows the comeback of old names. Louise, Rose, Louis and Léon are in the top ten after several decades out of favour. At the same time, unisex names are gaining ground: 5,699 names were given to children of both sexes in 2025, covering 536 babies in 10,000, compared with 613 names and 85 babies in 10,000 in 1946. Since 1993, the most common have been Noa, Eden, Charlie, Andréa and Alix.
Does the ranking change by region?
Partly. Gabriel is the top boys’ name in 12 regions out of 18. Elsewhere, first place goes to Malo in Brittany, Jayden in French Guiana, Kaïs in Réunion, Rayane in Mayotte and Noah in Guadeloupe and Martinique. For girls, Louise leads in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Brittany and Occitanie. Inaya comes first in the overseas regions, except Guadeloupe, where Luna wins. Insee publishes detailed regional maps for both sexes.
What the law allows today
This diversity is also a product of the law. The law of 11 Germinal Year XI (in the French Republican calendar), in 1803, limited the choice to names from the saints’ calendars and figures from ancient history. It was relaxed in 1955, 1966 and 1987. The law of 8 January 1993 repealed the 1803 text: the registrar can no longer refuse a first name, unless it seems contrary to the child’s interests or to a third party’s right to their name, in which case they refer it to the public prosecutor.
The first name is registered at the same time as the birth, within five days. The formalities are covered in our article on paperwork after the birth. Choosing the surname follows other rules, set out in our article on your baby’s surname.
How to read these figures
- The file counts the first name declared, as recorded in the national register of natural persons. Spelling and accent variants are counted separately: Léo and Leo are two names.
- Figures are rounded to a multiple of 5, and names given fewer than 3 times are not published.
- Compound names are hard to identify, as the civil register separates first names with spaces.
- Before 2012, the data cover metropolitan France excluding Mayotte; completeness is not guaranteed before 1946.
To place these 643,900 births within the demographic trend, our article on the birth rate in France according to Insee gives the details. And once the name is chosen, it becomes one of the first words your child recognises: our article on when a baby responds to their name places this milestone between 5 and 9 months, before the stage when they say their name and then “I”.
Key takeaways
- Louise (3,070) and Gabriel (4,625) are the most popular names of 2025; Jade, Ambre, Noah and Léo follow.
- 65,940 distinct names for 643,900 births: the top name now represents only 1 to 1.4% of babies.
- The share of the top five names fell from 32.5% to 5.5% for boys and from 21.3% to 4.3% for girls between 1946 and 2025.
- Since 1993, the choice has been free, provided it is in the child’s interests.
Sources
- Insee, “Top 10 des prénoms en France en 2025”, first-names file, published 16 July 2026.
- Amandine Rodrigues, “80 ans de prénoms : de plus en plus de diversité”, Insee Première no. 2127, 16 September 2026 (erratum of 17 September 2026).
- Insee, “Cartes des prénoms les plus donnés par région en France”, 2025 first-names file, July 2026.
