Ranking of first names in France since 1900 

This interactive tool is based on the data from Fichier des prénoms given to children born in France since 1900. This file is downloadable on the Insee website. It doesn't describe the living population on a given year but only the births on a given year. In order for the tool to be light and fast, graphics display shows only the most given first names.

Some first names are unisex like Claude. In the graphics, each of the available unisex first names is fallowed by a « F » for girls and a « M » for boys.

The fichier des prénoms is built from the birth certificate of persons born in France including the outer sea departments (DOM) recorded in the civil register, individuals born in foreign countries are excluded from those data. Exhaustivity is not garanteed on the whole duration, notably on years before 1946. The users can therefore see some differences compared to the yearly numbers evaluated by the Insee. Those gaps, significant at the start of the period, pursue by decreasing. After 1946, they are insignificant.

The informations cvontained in the fichier des prénoms are based on civil register certificates transmited to the Insee by communal civil register officers. Those bulletins are themselves established from the parents declarations. The Insee cannot garantee that the files are without omissions or mistakes.

In the civil register files, in this case birth certificate, the first name and middle names are separated by a space (or blank). Therefore two names separated by a dash is one compound first name (example : Anne-Laure). The first name or coumpound is at the start of the list, and it is the one kept after the protection of anonymity treatment.

A general presentation of the source civil register can be accessed in the section est accessible dans la rubrique « Definition, methods and qualitu » of the insee.fr website.