70-605: Bouvet can have the following meanings: Bouvet is a French surname . Notable people with the surname include: French surname French names typically consist of one or multiple given names , and a surname . One given name, usually the first, and the surname are used in a person's daily life, with the other given names used mainly in official documents. Middle names , in the English sense, do not exist. Initials are not used to represent second or further given names. Traditionally, most French people were given names from
140-479: A "usage name". This is not a legal obligation (it is a contra legem custom, as French law since the Revolution has required that no one may be called by any other name than that written on their birth certificate), and not all women decide to do so. However, if they do, they may retain the use of this name, depending on circumstances, even after a divorce. In some cases, the wife, or both spouses, choose to adopt
210-607: A controlling stake in the newspaper. Le Monde was founded in 1944, at the request of General Charles de Gaulle , after the German army had been driven from Paris during World War II . The paper took over the headquarters and layout of Le Temps , which had been the most important newspaper in France, but its reputation had suffered during the Occupation . Beuve-Méry reportedly demanded total editorial independence as
280-489: A controlling stake in the newspaper. In October 2018, staff learned that Pigasse had sold 49% of his stake in the company to Czech businessman Daniel Křetínský . Le Monde 's Independency Group, a minority shareholder that aims to protect the paper's editorial independence , had not been informed of the sale, and asked Pigasse and Křetínský to sign an "approval agreement" that would give the Independency Group
350-435: A double-barreled, hyphenated surname made from joining the surnames of both partners. Thus, both partners' surnames coexist with whatever usage name they choose. This distinction is important because many official documents use the person's birth or legal surname, rather than their usage name. People may also choose to use other names in daily usage, as long as they are not impersonating others and as long as their usage name
420-405: A first given name, although it is sometimes given to males as second or third given name, especially in devout Catholic families. Compound given names, such as Jean-Luc , Jean-Paul and Anne-Sophie are not uncommon. These are not considered to be two separate given names. The second part of a compound name may be a given name normally used by the opposite sex. However, the gender of the compound
490-405: A hyphenated surname, only one word, the first surname, is taken from each parent. The ratio of the number of family names to the population is high in France, primarily because most surnames had many orthographic and dialectal variants, which were then registered as separate names. Contrary to the practice of some other countries, French women do not legally change names when they marry; however, it
560-548: A newspaper of record. It de-emphasized maximum coverage of the news in favor of thoughtful interpretation of current events. In recent years the paper has established a greater distinction between fact and opinion. Le Monde was founded by Hubert Beuve-Méry at the request of Charles de Gaulle (as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic ) on 19 December 1944, shortly after
630-526: A person may use a name of a third party (called the common name) in the following circumstances: Since Law No. 2003-516 of 18 June 2003 on the devolution of family names, there is no longer any distinction between the name of the mother and the father. A child may receive the family name of one or the other, or both family names. Decree No. 2004-1159 of 29 October 2004 implemented Law No. 2002-304 of 4 March 2002, provided that children born on or after 1 January 2004 and children changing names, may have or use only
700-503: A person's name is usually preceded by: Since 2013, French administration does not use the term mademoiselle anymore for its documents in favour of madame regardless of the status and the age of the woman addressed. During the Ancien Régime , a female commoner was always addressed as mademoiselle , even when married, madame being limited to women of the high nobility, even if they were not married. This practice ceased after
770-439: A preceding given name, title ( baron , duc etc.), job description ( général , colonel , etc.) or polite address ( monsieur , madame , mademoiselle ). Thus, one would say Monsieur de La Vieuville , but if calling him familiarly by his last name only, La Vieuville (note the initial capital letter); the same applies for Gérard de La Martinière , who would be called La Martinière . Similarly, Philippe de Villiers talks about
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#1732766179654840-480: A traditional French name with a toponymic particule , but a Flemish Dutch name that evolved from a form of De Walle meaning "the wall". In the case of nobility, titles are mostly of the form [title] [ particle ] [name of the land]: for instance, Louis, duc d'Orléans ("Louis, duke of Orléans "), or simply Louis d'Orléans . Former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing 's father had his surname legally changed from "Giscard" to "Giscard d'Estaing" in 1922, claiming
910-479: A work environment. Also, contrary to English or German usage, it is considered impolite to address someone as monsieur X when talking to that person: a mere monsieur should be used, monsieur X being reserved for talking about M. X to another person . When speaking of someone, monsieur/madame given name family name , by far the most polite form of address, is generally reserved for the most solemn occasions. Monsieur/madame family name or given name family name
980-509: Is ) in 1976. According to him, the journal minimized the atrocities the Cambodian Khmer Rouge committed. In their 2003 book titled La Face cachée du Monde ( The Hidden face of "Le Monde" ), authors Pierre Péan and Philippe Cohen alleged that Colombani and then-editor Edwy Plenel had shown, amongst other things, partisan bias and had engaged in financial dealings that compromised the paper's independence. It also accused
1050-534: Is believed that the number of surnames in France at all times since 1990 has been between 800,000 and 1,200,000. The number of surnames is high proportional to the population; most surnames have many orthographic and dialectal variants (more than 40 for some), which were registered as entirely separate names around 1880 when " family vital records booklets " were issued. According to the Institute of Statistics ( INSEE ), more than 1,300,000 surnames were registered in
1120-416: Is customary that they adopt their husband's name as a "usage name" for daily life. This distinction is important because many official documents use the person's maiden, or legal or true surname, rather than their usage name. Some artists change their real name to their stage name, but truly changing one's last name, as opposed to adopting a usage name, is a quite complex legal process. In normal polite usage,
1190-541: Is determined by the first component. Thus, Marie-George Buffet has a given name considered as female because it begins with Marie , and George is spelled with a final -e like all the traditional French female given names, instead of Georges with -es for a male. The feminine component in male compound names is mostly Marie , as in Jean-Marie Vianney . In the past, some Frenchmen would have Marie or Anne as first name (example: Anne du Bourg ), which
1260-489: Is editorially independent. Le Monde is considered one of the French newspapers of record , along with Libération and Le Figaro . A Reuters Institute poll in 2021 found that Le Monde is the most trusted French newspaper. The paper's journalistic side has a collegial form of organization, in which most journalists are tenured, unionized, and financial stakeholders in the business. While shareholders appoint
1330-678: Is not done in French-speaking publications. Second and further given names, when given, typically honour a child's grandparents, great-grandparents, or other ancestors. The practice of giving two or even three names was fairly common until the early 20th century, but has since fallen out of fashion. Traditionally and historically, most people were given names from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. Common names of this type are Jacques ( James ), Jean ( John ), Michel ( Michael ), Pierre ( Peter ), and Jean-Baptiste ( John
1400-413: Is now slightly out of fashion, except on formal invitation cards (in France, on a formal invitation card, the traditional formula is always a variant of "Madame Jean Dupont recevra..." . The traditional use of the first name of the woman's husband is now felt in this context as a way to include the husband as equally inviting alongside his wife, while keeping the tradition of reception being formally held by
1470-415: Is polite and used in normal formal occasions, as well as in the formal quality press ( Le Monde , Le Monde diplomatique , for example). By contrast, in colloquial usage the family names of personalities are used alone. Formally, a married or widowed woman can be called by the given name of her husband ( madame (given name of husband) family name or madame veuve (given name of husband) family name ); this
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#17327661796541540-546: Is regarded as France's leading newspaper of record . In November 2023, Le Monde joined with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists , Paper Trail Media [ de ] and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories to produce
1610-551: Is socially accepted. One example of this is the custom of actors or singers to use a stage name . However, identity documents and other official documents will bear only the "real name" of the person. In some cases, people change their real name to their stage name; for example, the singer Patrick Bruel changed his name from his birth name of Benguigui . Another example of aliases being turned into true names: During World War II , some Resistance fighters (such as Lucie Aubrac ) and Jews fleeing persecution adopted aliases. Some kept
1680-423: Is still nowadays in practice in rare traditional Catholic families (but then the man will have other given names and one of those will be used in everyday life). Second or third given names, which usually are kept private, may also include names normally used by the opposite gender. For instance, in 2006, 81 Frenchmen have Brigitte among their given names, 97 Catherine , 133 Anne , and 204 Julie . In addition to
1750-413: Is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including 40,000 sold abroad. It has been available online since 1995, and it is often the only French newspaper easily obtainable in non-French-speaking countries. It should not be confused with the monthly publication Le Monde diplomatique , of which Le Monde has 51% ownership but
1820-546: Is used in daily life; any others are solely for official documents, such as passports or certificates. Thus, one always speaks of Jacques Chirac and never of Jacques René Chirac ; Henri Philippe Pétain is always referred to as Philippe Pétain , because Philippe was the given name that he used in daily life. Middle names in the English sense do not exist; initials are never used for second or further given names. For example, although English-speaking scientific publications may cite Claude Allègre as Claude J. Allègre , this
1890-608: The Army , the Gendarmerie and the Air Force are addressed as Mon [rank] by inferior ranks and deferential civilians. This usage is said not to be the possessive pronoun mon , but an abbreviation of monsieur : consequently, women are not referred to with mon , but with the rank alone (for example Général rather than mon Général ). As a punishment by Napoléon Bonaparte , Navy officers have not been addressed as mon since
1960-600: The Battle of Trafalgar . Confusingly, the title generally does not match the rank, but rather an equivalent rank in other forces: lieutenant is the form of address for an enseigne de vaisseau , capitaine for a lieutenant de vaisseau , and commandant for a capitaine de corvette , frégate , or vaisseau . The commanding officer of a ship is also addressed as commandant , regardless of his/her actual rank. In everyday written contexts, ranks are abbreviated. French people have at least one given name. Usually, only one of them
2030-460: The Council of State . Requests for such changes must be justified by some legitimate interest, for instance, changing from a foreign name difficult to pronounce in French to a simpler name, or changing from a name with unfavorable connotations. Le Monde Le Monde ( French: [lə mɔ̃d] ; French for 'The World') is a French daily afternoon newspaper . It
2100-584: The French Revolution . A traditional address to a crowd of people is Mesdames, Messieurs or Mesdames, Mesdemoiselles, Messieurs —whose order of words represents decreasing degrees of respect. An informal variant is Messieurs-Dames ; it is considered as ill-mannered by purists. It is normally impolite to address people by their given names unless one is a family member, a friend or a close colleague of comparable hierarchic importance. One also does not address people by their last name only unless in
2170-549: The Liberation of Paris from Nazism, and has published continuously since its first edition. In the 1990s and 2000s, La Vie-Le Monde Group expanded under editor Jean-Marie Colombani with a number of acquisitions; however, its profitability was not sufficient to cover the large debts it took on to fund this expansion, and it sought new investors in 2010 to keep the company from bankruptcy . In June 2010, French investors Matthieu Pigasse , Pierre Bergé , and Xavier Niel acquired
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2240-564: The Mitrokhin Archive investigators, Le Monde (KGB codename VESTNIK, "messenger") was the KGB 's key outlet for Soviet disinformation in the French media. The archive identified two senior Le Monde journalists and several contributors who were used in the operations (see also the article on Russian influence operations in France ). Michel Legris, a former journalist with the paper, wrote Le Monde tel qu'il est ( Le Monde as it
2310-641: The Roman Catholic calendar of saints . However, given names for French citizens from immigrant communities are often from their own culture, and in modern France it has become increasingly common to use first names of (international) English or other foreign origin. Almost all traditional given names are gender-specific, but a few are not. Many female given names are feminine forms of traditional masculine French names. The prevalence of given names follows trends , with some names being popular in some years, and some considered out-of-fashion. Compound given names are not uncommon. (The second part may be one normally used by
2380-612: The ' Cyprus Confidential ' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin , mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours, calling for reforms and launching probes. In June 2010, investors Matthieu Pigasse , Pierre Bergé , and Xavier Niel acquired
2450-550: The 2000s Le Monde allowed its subscribers to publish a blog on its website. These blogs were called the "les blogs abonnées du Monde.fr". On 10 April 2019, Le Monde announced that it would be closing its blog platform on 5 June 2019. Although the reasons for the closing of the blogs were unclear, it could be linked to the dominance of social networks like Facebook. Le Monde launched an English language edition of its news website on 7 April 2022, featuring its articles translated from French. In 1981, Le Monde backed
2520-951: The Baptist ) for males; and Marie ( Mary ), Jeanne ( Jane ), Marguerite ( Margaret ), Françoise ( Frances ), and Élisabeth ( Elizabeth ) for females. In certain regions such as Brittany or Corsica , more local names (usually of local saints) are often used (in Brittany, for instance, male Corentin or female Anne ; in Corsica, Ange (suitable both for males and females, French version corresponding to Corsican Angelo , Angela ). However, given names for French citizens from immigrant communities are often from their own culture, such as Mohammed, Karim , Saïd , Toufik , Jorge , etc. for males, Fatima , Fatoumata , etc. for females. Furthermore, in recent decades it has become common to use first names of English or other foreign origin, mainly in
2590-643: The French Prime Minister press convoy to Algeria. The denial of visas to Le Monde reporters caused some French media to boycott the event, including Libération , Le Figaro , and France Inter . Le Monde had previously published the names of Algerian officials directly involved with the Panama Papers scandal. Coverage of the scandal in Le Monde included a front-page photo of President of Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika . However,
2660-441: The above-described custom of using Marie for males, this is due to the habit of traditional Catholic French families to give children the names of their godmother and godfather: if there is no counterpart of the opposite gender for the name of the godparent who is not of the same sex as the child, generally the name of the godparent will be left as such. For instance, a male child born to a traditional Catholic family choosing for him
2730-488: The alias as a legal name after the war or added it to their name ( Jacques Chaban-Delmas ' name was Delmas , and Chaban was the last of his wartime aliases; his children were given the family surname Delmas). Legally changing one's last name, as opposed to adopting a usage name, is quite complex. Such changes have to be made official by a décret en Conseil d'État issued by the Prime Minister after approval by
2800-487: The change. Children in France were until 2005 required by law to take the surname of their father, unless the father was unknown and the child was given the family name of the mother. Since 2005, parents can give their children either of their names, or a hyphenation of both, subject to a limit of at most two hyphenated names. In case the two parents cannot come to an agreement, both of their family names are used and hyphenated in alphabetical order ; if one of them already has
2870-583: The child to mockery. To change a given name, a request can be made before a court ( juge des affaires familiales ), but except in a few specific cases (such as the Gallicization of a foreign name), it is necessary to prove a legitimate interest for the change (usually that the current name is a cause of mockery or when put together with the surname, it creates a ridiculous word or sentence, e.g.: Jean Bon sounds jambon "ham", or Annick Mamère = A nique ma mère , slang for "she fucks my mother"). It
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2940-403: The chosen names (alone or in association with the last name) may be detrimental to the child's interests, or to the right of other families to protect their own family name, the registrar may refer the matter to the local prosecutor, who may choose to refer the matter to the local court. The court may then refuse the chosen names. Such refusals are rare and mostly concern given names that may expose
3010-573: The company's CEO, the editor is elected by Le Monde ' s journalists to uphold the newsroom's independence. Le Monde has often broken major scandals, for instance, by directly implicating President François Mitterrand in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand. In contrast to other world newspapers such as The New York Times , Le Monde was traditionally focused on offering analysis and opinion, as opposed to being
3080-652: The condition for his taking on the project. Le Monde began publishing a weekly digest edition in English on 23 April 1969. In December 2006, on the 60th anniversary of its publishing début, Le Monde moved into new headquarters in Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui , 13th arrondissement of Paris . The building—formerly the headquarters of Air France —was refashioned by Bouygues from the designs of Christian de Portzamparc . The building's façade has an enormous fresco adorned by doves (drawn by Plantu ) flying towards Victor Hugo , symbolising freedom of
3150-405: The country between 1891 and 1990, and about 200,000 have disappeared (mainly unique orthographic variants). According to different estimates, 50 to 80 percent of French citizens may bear rare family names (fewer than 50 bearers alive at the census time). Not all family names are of French origin, as many families have some immigrant roots. In France, until 2005, children were required by law to take
3220-445: The double de La are. In other countries and languages, capitalisation may follow different rules. A common misconception is that particules indicate some noble or feudal origin of the name, but this is not always the case. Many non-noble people have particules in their names simply because they indicate the family's geographic origin. One example is Dominique de Villepin . French statesman Charles de Gaulle 's surname may not be
3290-473: The election of socialist François Mitterrand , partly on the grounds that the alternation of the political party in government would be beneficial to the democratic character of the state. The paper endorsed centre-right candidate Édouard Balladur in the 1995 French presidential election , and Ségolène Royal , the Socialist Party candidate, in the 2007 French presidential election . According to
3360-721: The family name of the father or the mother or both family names. However, whichever form is used, a person's name must be used consistently on all identification documents, such as a passport or identity card. The list for France is different according to the sources. A list including the births between 1891 and 1990 shows : 1 – Martin , 2 – Bernard , 3 – Thomas , 4 – Petit , 5 – Robert , 6 – Richard , 7 – Durand , 8 – Dubois , 9 – Moreau , 10 – Laurent . A list of birth between 1966 and 1990 yields: 1 – Martin, 2 – Bernard, 3 – Thomas, 4 – Robert, 5 – Petit, 6 – Dubois, 7 – Richard, 8 – Garcia (Spanish), 9 – Durand, 10 – Moreau. This list masks strong regional differences in France and
3430-425: The first estate name (such as Viscount Philippe Le Jolis de Villiers de Saintignon, assuming in everyday life the name of Philippe de Villiers) or, in some cases, only the family name. Whether the family name or the estate name is used for the shortened form depends on a variety of factors: how people feel bearing a particule (people may for instance dislike the connotations of nobility that the particule entails; on
3500-491: The first of their names, if they each have a hyphenated name themselves. A 1978 declaration by the Council of Europe requires member governments to take measures to adopt equality of rights in the transmission of family names, a measure that was repeated by the United Nations in 1979. Similar measures were adopted by Germany (1976), Sweden (1982), Denmark (1983), Spain (1999), and Austria (2013). In France,
3570-457: The increasing number of foreign names among the French citizens. Some French last names include a prefix called a particle (French: particule ), a preposition or article at the beginning of the name. The most widespread of these are de (meaning "of"), le or la ("the"), and Du or de La ("of the"). The capitalisation of particules can vary. In France, particles de , le and la are generally not capitalised, but Du and
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#17327661796543640-402: The masthead date. The Saturday issue is a double one, for Saturday and Sunday, thus the latest edition can be found on newsstands from Monday to Friday included, while subscribers will receive it from Tuesday to Saturday. Le Monde was among the first French newspapers on the web, with its first web edition on 19 December 1995. It is among the 50 most visited websites in France. Starting in
3710-400: The name Germaine , which is generally associated with the idea of an elderly lady. However, as noted above, such old-fashioned names are frequently used as second or third given names, because in France the second or further given names are traditionally those of the godparents or the grandparents. Some older names, such as Suzanne , Violette , and Madeleine , have become fashionable again in
3780-422: The name Nicolas and whose godparents are called Christian and Véronique could be called Nicolas Christian Marie Véronique . First names are chosen by the child's parents. There are no legal a priori constraints on the choice of names nowadays, but this has not always been the case. The choice of given names, originally limited only by the tradition of naming children after a small number of popular saints,
3850-399: The name of a family line extinct since the French Revolution . Adding a particule was one way for people of non-noble origins to pretend they were nobles. In the 19th century, wealthy commoners buying nobility titles were derisively called Monsieur de Puispeu , a pun on depuis peu meaning "since recently". Similarly, during the French Revolution of 1789–1799, when being associated with
3920-556: The nobility was out of favor and even risky, some people dropped the de from their name, or omitted the mention of their feudal titles. In some cases, names with particules are made of a normal family name and the name of an estate (or even of several estates). Thus, Dominique de Villepin is Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin ; Hélie de Saint Marc is Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc (in both cases, omitting second or other given names). As in these examples, most people with such long family names shorten their name for common use, by keeping only
3990-410: The opposite sex; the gender of the compound is determined by the first part.) First names are chosen by the child's parents. Nowadays, there are no legal a priori constraints on the choice of names, though this was not always the case as recently as a few decades ago. To change a given name, a request can be made before a court, but except in a few specific cases, one must prove a legitimate interest for
4060-400: The other hand, they may enjoy the impression of nobility), tradition, etc. For instance, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is never referred to as "d'Estaing", probably because his particule is a recent addition to the family surname by his father. On the contrary, the press often simply refers to him as "Giscard". Traditionally, the particule de is omitted when citing the name of a person without
4130-520: The paper clarified in its next edition that Bouteflika was not directly implicated, but maintained that his associates were. Bouteflika opened a libel suit against Le Monde , which was later dropped after the newspaper apologised. In June 2017, Le Monde was certified as an International Fact-Checking Network member of the Poynter Institute . 。 In 2023, Le Monde banned fossil fuel advertising to tackle climate change . Le Monde
4200-509: The paper of dangerously damaging the authority of the French state by having revealed various political scandals (notably corruption scandals surrounding Jacques Chirac , the " Irish of Vincennes " affair, and the sinking of a Greenpeace boat, the Rainbow Warrior , by French intelligence under President François Mitterrand ). This book remains controversial , but it attracted much attention and media coverage in France and worldwide at
4270-679: The popular classes of society, such as Kevin , Enzo , or Anthony (instead of Antoine in the upper classes) for males; for females, Jessica , Jennifer , Karine or Barbara (instead of Barbe , now out of fashion, because it sounds exactly the same as barbe "beard" as in the expression la barbe! "What a drag! / How boring!"). Also, females are often given names like Jacqueline and Géraldine that are feminine forms of traditional common masculine French names. The prevalence of given names follows trends , with some names being popular in some years, and some considered definitely out-of-fashion. As an example, few children born since 1970 would bear
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#17327661796544340-480: The press . In 2008, Le Monde was found guilty of defamation for saying that Spanish football club FC Barcelona was connected to a doctor involved in steroid use. The Spanish court fined the newspaper nearly $ 450,000. In 2014, Groupe Le Monde announced that Le Monde would move into a new headquarters, also in the 13th arrondissement, around 2017, with space for 1,200 people. In April 2016, two Le Monde reporters were denied visas to visit Algeria as part of
4410-575: The pronunciation is the same but the spelling is different: Frédéric (m) / Frédérique (f). In medieval times, a woman was often named Philippe (Philippa), now an exclusively masculine name (Philip), or a male Anne (Ann), now almost exclusively feminine (except as second or third given name, mostly in Brittany). From the mid-19th century into the early 20th century, Marie was a popular first name for both men or women, however, before and after that period it has been almost exclusively given to women as
4480-401: The right to approve or reject any controlling shareholder. As of September 2019 , they had not done so. Le Monde is published around midday, and the cover date on the masthead is the following day's. For instance, the issue released at midday on 15 March shows 16 March on the masthead. It is available on newsstands in France on the day of release and received by mail subscribers on
4550-475: The surname of their father. If the father was unknown, the child was given the family name of the mother. Since 2005, article 311-21 of the French Civil code permits parents to give their children the father's name, the mother's name, or a hyphenation of both: although no more than two names can be hyphenated. In cases of disagreement, both parents' family names are hyphenated, in alphabetic order, with only
4620-517: The time of its publication. Following a lawsuit, the authors and the publisher agreed in 2004 not to proceed with any reprinting. The Prix littéraire du Monde has been awarded annually by Le Monde since 2013. It is awarded at the beginning of September to a novel published at the start of the French literary season—or "rentrée littéraire". The winner of the prize is chosen by a jury made up of journalists—literary journalists from Le Monde des livres , cultural or other editorial staff—chaired by
4690-528: The upper class and in the upper middle class. Others such as Jean , Pierre , Louis , and François never really went out of fashion. Alexandre (Alexander) was never very popular, but is not uncommon in middle and upper classes. Almost all traditional given names are gender-specific. However, a few given names, such as Dominique (see above: completely gender-neutral), Claude (traditionally masculine), and Camille (traditionally masculine, now mostly feminine ), are given to both males and females; for others,
4760-433: The votes he receives as le vote Villiers . However, this usage is now losing ground to a more egalitarian treatment of surnames; it is, for instance, commonplace to hear people talking of de Villiers . Note that American English language medial capital spellings such as DeVilliers are never used in France. A French woman retains her birth name when she marries. In some cases, a woman may take her husband's name as
4830-426: The wife. In the workplace or in academic establishments, particularly in a male-dominated environment, it is quite common to refer to male employees by their family name only, but to use madame or mademoiselle before the names of female employees. A military officer is addressed by his rank (and under no circumstance by monsieur , but a group of officers can be addressed by plural messieurs ). Male officers of
4900-408: Was restricted by law at the end of the 18th century, could be accepted. Much later, actually in 1966, a new law permitted a limited number of mythological, regional or foreign names, substantives (Olive, Violette), diminutives, and alternative spellings. Only in 1993 were French parents given the freedom to name their child without any constraint whatsoever. However, if the birth registrar thinks that
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