French names

This article describes the conventions for using people's names in France, including the norms of custom and practice, as well as the legal aspects.

In normal polite usage, a person's name is usually preceded by:

During the Ancien Régime, a laywoman was always addressed "mademoiselle", even when married, "madame" being reserved to women of high aristocracy, even not married. This practice ceased after 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 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 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 is now slightly out of fashion, except on formal invitation cards (in France, on a formal invitation card, the traditional formula is always a variante 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 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.

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