With nearly 29,000 little French people wearing it, this masculine first name continues to make remarkable progress in the national ranking. A trajectory all the more notable as it is directly linked to a specific event in the history of the seventh art, illustrating the way in which popular culture can lastingly influence parents’ choices.
A Frenchified biblical root
Eliott would be linked, like Elijah, to a French form of the Hebrew name Elijah, which can be translated as “the Lord is my God”. This first name, very common in English-speaking countries for a long time, had little history in France until recently. Its modern and international sound partly explains the enthusiasm it arouses today among younger generations of parents, looking for first names that are both original and easy to pronounce in several languages.
The ET effect, a sudden takeoff in 1983
It was in 1983 that the first name really took off in France, just one year after the triumphant release of ET the Extra-Terrestrial, the cult film by Steven Spielberg. In this work which has become a cinema classic, the young hero who befriends the alien bears precisely this first name. The global success of the feature film was enough to popularize this choice among French families, who massively adopted it in the following years. Since then, the dynamic has never completely run out of steam, until this recent breakthrough in the top 50 births.
A temperament turned towards analysis and humanity
In terms of character, people with this first name would be marked by strong tolerance and a keen sense of rectitude. They are also believed to have a pronounced taste for analysis and a certain propensity for daydreaming, traits which would nourish a deep humanity in their relationships with others. A set of qualities which, associated with an origin that is both biblical and pop-cultural, undoubtedly helps to explain the growing place of this first name in French birth registers.