Using an index measuring the relative probability of names in different populations, our results indicate that immigrants and especially those from the Maghreb/Middle‐East give first names to their children that are different from those given by the French majority population. Though we find a correlation between religiosity and our name index for European immigrants, the differences in naming practices cannot generally be attributed to religiosity as we find no correlation between our name index and the religious practices of immigrants from the Maghreb/Middle‐East. These differences in the naming patterns are, as one would expect, related to general cultural references, language, citizenship and educational attainment.