How popular is the baby name Francoise in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Francoise.

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Popularity of the baby name Francoise


Posts that mention the name Francoise

How did Simone de Beauvoir get her name?

 

French writer/feminist Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
Simone de Beauvoir

French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir was born in early 1908 with the full name Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir.

Where did her parents, Georges and Françoise, get all those names?

The baby was named Simone (a break with family tradition of naming daughters after their grandmothers) because Georges like this then chic name very much. He relented only partially for her other names: refusing to allow the baby to be named Léontine after his mother, he compromised with Ernestine (for Ernest-Narcisse), Lucie (for Madame Brasseur, surprisingly at Françoise’s insistence), and Marie (for the Virgin Mary). She was baptized in the Catholic faith when six weeks old as Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, but was taught as an infant to give her name simply as Simone de Beauvoir.

Ernest-Narcisse refers to Georges’s father, and Lucie/Madame Brasseur refers to Françoise’s mother.

Which of Simone’s four given names to you like best?

Source: Bair, Deirdre. Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

Where did the baby name Caillou come from in 2001?

Caillou from the cartoon "Caillou" (1997-2010)
Caillou

The curious name Caillou first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 2001 with an impressive 35 baby boys, making it the second-highest boy-name debut of the year (after Jahiem).

  • 2003: 24 baby boys named Caillou
  • 2002: 23 baby boys named Caillou
  • 2001: 35 baby boys named Caillou [debut]
  • 2000: unlisted
  • 1999: unlisted

The variant spelling Kaillou also debuted in 2001.

Where did these names come from?

The Canadian cartoon Caillou, which premiered in Canada in the late ’90s, but didn’t start airing in the U.S. until the year 2000.

The show’s main character was a 4-year-old boy named — what else? — Caillou (pronounced KYE-yoo).

The animated program was based on a series of children’s books by author Christine L’Heureux, who said the books were “inspired by the work of French psychoanalyst Dr. Françoise Dolto (1908-1988).”

So where does the word caillou come from?

The word “caillou” in French means pebble, which was used in a ritual created by Dr. Françoise Dolto. Reflecting her philosophy of respect for the child as a person, she asked children to give her pebbles as a symbolic payment for her consultations.

Sources: Your Questions – Chouette Publishing, SSA

P.S. Another cartoon-inspired baby name with a pebble-association? Pebbles. :)