Child: giving a food name is trendy!

In our entourage, we have all heard of a Clementine, a Plum or a person named Cherry. While these baptismal names are less and less given in France, our English neighbors find in their culinary preferences ideas for baptizing their children. A source of inspiration that can engage young parents to name it Herb, Brie or Honey.

A fashion out of social networks

We do not yet suspect all the consequences of the habits we adopted during confinement at the time of the health crisis. Would you have imagined that the commitment of confined people to cooking gives them ideas for first names?

In England, this is the analysis shared by a YouTuber who has made the search for first names her business. SJ Strum inspires future parents with videos and a podcast called “Baby name envy“. The subject is broached in reaction to a post on Facebook which has gone viral, which suggested that a British couple had named their baby girl “Pakora”, in reference to the vegetable fritters served in Indian cuisine.

In an interview with the British newspaper Subway, the connected mum says that for the past two years, vegetable alternatives have been sources of ideas for finding the first names of newborns. Herb (grass in English) is for example at the top of the top names inspired by the culinary universe in the United Kingdom, according to the influencer. Other specimens are just as surprising: Sage (sage), Honey (honey), Basil (basil) or Saffron (saffron).

A very inspiring nature

Beyond the culinary universe, it is the relationship with nature that guides future parents. And on this point, the French share the same inspiration as their English neighbours. Authors of the Official first names, freshly released by First editions, Claire Tabarly and Stéphanie Rapoport agreed to carry out research in their database in order to check whether the trend of these first names borrowed from food was also observed in the country of Paul Bocuse.

“We are seeing a clear rise in first names from nature in general, such as Iris, Jade, Côme, Loup”, told us Claire Tabarly. There is no tremor around taste or edible first names”. We will only note the birth of a very small number of babies baptized Honey in France.

In fact, food and plants come together in the tricolor registers for some examples spotted by the specialist. Names like Marjolaine, Vanille and Cannelle made a brief comeback in 2020, albeit to a very limited extent. The first first name was given 5,058 times two years ago, the second 1,190 and the third 1,111 times, knowing that for the latter the number can double due to variants with a “N” less or a “K” at the instead of the “C”.

Ideas for first names like Apple, Raspberry or even Cherry are now rarely included in parents’ lists. At best, Prune is the 866th most given name since 1900.

Passionate about cooking and pastry, did the French then draw inspiration from the great chefs they admire to baptize their child, like those parents who had chosen in the past the first name Eva in connection with Eva Longoria at the time of the success of the series “Desperate Housewives” or those who had opted for Rihanna, in reference to the singer?

Let’s admit that the English are much more inspired since, in the top of trendy food names, young parents choose to baptize their offspring Brie, Baker (baker), or Rye (rye).

Slide: Boy’s first name: the French top 40 2022