What they couldn’t convert, they could rename. And that included themselves. Before the Revolution, French forenames were largely restricted to Catholic control—which meant sticking to biblical and saints’ names. (The nobility could, as in most everything else, get away with more flair.) But in September of 1792, just one day after the National Convention of France unanimously voted to abolish the monarchy, French people were handed a new right: the right to name their children—and themselves—whatever they wanted.
