Billy, Lucy, Alex: Is there a French town or village with your name?
You can check on the map below or review the data yourself
Many people share their name with a town or village
Popartic / Shutterstock
A graphic designer has created a map of towns and villages in France that share popular Christian names.
Clara Dealberto came up with the idea after reading a story about a , a village in the Marne.
鈥楴ancy鈥� is perhaps the largest and most famous of these, but Ms Dealberto found numerous similar examples.
Other names popular in both France and Anglophone countries which are shared between places and people include Suzy, Amy and Lucy.
She has placed her map on social media:
Ms Dealberto, who works at , defined some of the ground rules for her map.
Firstly, no towns or villages prefixed with 鈥楽aint鈥� are included as 鈥渢his would make it too easy鈥�. Many 麻豆传媒映画, especially those in the older generations, have a Christian name associated with a certain Saint, and many villages are named after religious figures.
Secondly, the name had to appear on the French birth registry at least 1,000 times since 1900.
Read more: What girls鈥� and boys鈥� names are trending for babies in France?
鈥楢nyone can do it鈥�
Ms Dealberto told she 鈥渓oves any games based on geography and place names,鈥� which inspired her to make the map.
She also took inspiration from Georges Perec's novel La Disparition, famous for not once using the letter 鈥榚鈥�.
Read more: French baby named 鈥楥anard鈥� is heir to tragic but proud family history
If your name does not appear on the map above but you would like to know if you share it with a town, you can find a list of all 35,000-odd communes in France . The data can be downloaded as an excel spreadsheet and the command search function 鈥榗trl + F鈥� used to see if your name is there.
The list is compiled by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (often shortened to INSEE) which also holds the data used by Ms Dealberto to search for the names since 1900.
It took Ms Dealberto around an hour of research before then compiling the map.
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