“What if I told you that my name is going to be in today’s newspaper? Would you believe it?”

“Your name? Like, Juliette?”

“Well, yeah… not ‘Mommy.’”

“No way! How is that possible? How can you know that?”

“Wanna bet?”

“… I mean, you do have a blog, it makes you kind of famous…”

Oh, sweet summer child…

“Okay, let’s check the newspaper later, then.”

We went to my grandmother in the evening, and I pointed to my name printed above the daily forecast, just as I had predicted.

“See?”

“HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? How did you know?”

There’s always a trick.

I knew the newspaper would print my name because it was July 30, the day of “Sainte Juliette.”

Have you ever seen an old-style French calendar?

Let me start by explaining another French calendar tradition.

Every holiday season, letter carriers and firefighters in uniform go door-to-door to offer their themed calendar for a small donation (usually €5-10). The firefighter calendar usually features firefighters—naked or not—and donations support a charity. The Post Office calendar tends to feature cats or dogs, and your donation supports your local letter carrier—yes, it’s pretty much a bribe if you want to get your packages in a timely manner.

These calendars are based on the Catholic Saints—a saint is basically a martyr in the name of Christ—and a saint’s name is assigned to each day.

Wait, what? In France? Despite the French Revolution and the separation of church and state law in 1905?

Yep. The thing is, the French révolutionnaires did try to create a secular calendar, with months renamed to celebrate nature (March became “Germinal,” for instance), a new week with ten days, new days divided into ten hours, each hour divided into 100 minutes, themselves divided into 100 seconds. But hey, no more saints! And since the new calendar only had 360 days—not enough for the earth to revolve around the sun—days were added to be in line with planetary circles.

It was a lovely idea but with ten-day “weeks,” people now had to work nine days instead of six before getting a day off. They also had to wait a year before getting five days off in a row. And more generally, people simply couldn’t get used to confusing new clocks (even though some had been manufactured for the new calendar) and a new year that fell on a different date every year.

Napoleon eventually abolished it in 1805 and the old-style Catholic calendar was back.

And again, back in the days, the church used to provide a catalogue of acceptable Christian names, so parents were encouraged to name their newborn after the name of the saint celebrated on the day of the birth. So technically, since I was born on March 21, I should have been named “Clémence,” the saint of the day, and Mark could have been named … let me check… “Wilfried,” apparently.

Okay, as far as I know, absolutely no one does that anymore. Yet (almost) 365 French names are “on the calendar,” so many French have a “name day.”

No celebration is expected and in fact, most French can’t remember when their “name day” is.

But newspapers still print a small blurb about the day’s saint, usually along with the day’s forecast.

And this is how I was able to troll Mark for a few hours.

Ouest France Nantes, July 30, 2022
Ouest France Nantes, July 30, 2022
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Mark tasting a savoury galette for the first time, Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Mark tasting a savoury galette for the first time, Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Mark tasting a savoury galette for the first time, Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Mark tasting a savoury galette for the first time, Marché de la Petite-Hollande, Nantes
Grue Titan jaune, Île de Nantes, Nantes
Grue Titan jaune, Île de Nantes, Nantes
Grue Titan jaune, Île de Nantes, Nantes
Grue Titan jaune, Île de Nantes, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Grue Titan grise, Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Grue Titan grise, Quai des Antilles, Nantes
Crossing the Loire River to Chantenay, Nantes
Crossing the Loire River to Chantenay, Nantes
Chantenay, Nantes
Chantenay, Nantes
Crossing the Loire River to Chantenay, Nantes
Crossing the Loire River to Chantenay, Nantes
Parc des Oblates, Chantenay, Nantes
Parc des Oblates, Chantenay, Nantes
Parc des Oblates, Chantenay, Nantes
Parc des Oblates, Chantenay, Nantes
Île de Nantes, Nantes
Île de Nantes, Nantes
Le Manège d'Andrea, Parvis des nefs, île de Nantes
Le Manège d’Andrea, Parvis des nefs, île de Nantes
Le Manège d'Andrea, Parvis des nefs, île de Nantes
Le Manège d’Andrea, Parvis des nefs, île de Nantes
Le Manège d'Andrea, Parvis des nefs, île de Nantes
Le Manège d’Andrea, Parvis des nefs, île de Nantes
Pont Général Audibert, Nantes
Pont Général Audibert, Nantes

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3 Comments

  1. Martin Penwald August 5, 2022 at 3:02 am

    Until the 1990s, one couldn’t give a name to a child outside a set of names based in part on the calendar. Now, one could call their child whatever they want. However, an officier de l’état-civil can refuse a name that could be detrimental to the child.

    Reply
    1. Zhu August 5, 2022 at 7:42 pm

      That late? Weird. I have relatives with unusual names (nothing ridiculous, just… ridiculously intellectual) and as far as I know, they didn’t have any issues.

      Reply
      1. Martin Penwald August 7, 2022 at 5:57 pm

        I think so. However, it’s possible that there was already some leeway before that.

        Reply

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