Sylvain Mbappe: Satirical Website Offers Alternatives to 'Non-French' Names

Although the website would advise the former French midfielder, Zinedine Zidane, to change his first name to, for example, Antoine, it also deemed the very “non-French” name Kevin as acceptable.

A humorous website called Vite Mon Prenom (My Name, Quick) offers users a chance to check whether their name is “French enough”, and if it isn't, suggesting a Francophone alternative.

According to The Local, the website was set up as a humorous response to Eric Zemmour, the right-wing pundit and political journalist who argued for a ban on “non-French” first names in the country.

As the media outlet points out, a law passed in France back in 1803 which has since been repealed, obliged parents to choose a name for their child “from among a list of historically French names”.

Under the website’s guidelines, Zinedine would become Antoine, Kylian would be changed to Silvain, but Kevin, an emphatically “non-French” name, would be deemed acceptable.

Declaring that he would reinstate the 1803 law if elected, Zemmour, a possible contender in the forthcoming French presidential election, remarked that “a French man would no longer be able to call his son Muhammad,” although he conceded that he would permit it as a middle name, The Guardian adds.

“I consider that by giving Muslim first names, you are refusing to accept the history of France,” he reportedly told French TV.