when the Antoine de France gather in a Facebook group

When your name is Theo, you don’t simply fit into a group made up of nearly 10,000 Antoine. You need to obtain a temporary tourist visa to be able to explore this strange place where you call each other by your last name. It must be said that everyone has the same first name. This is even the concept of this “Neurchi d’Antoine”.

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Created in 2019 by Antoine Paulet, it was at the time a simple joke between friends, one more “Neurchi” in the galaxy of these Facebook groups intended to share “memes”, these very popular viral and humorous images. But “it got out of hand quickly”concedes the founder of “Neurchi d’Antoine”, whose group has grown very quickly.

SO, “We tried to define what an Antoine was, because we had Charles-Antoines, Antonins, Anthonys, Antoinettes, Antonios…he says. We started to vote very democratically. And the results were pretty insensitive. We decided to keep only the Antoinettes and the Antoines.”

It must be said that it is not the Antoine who are lacking in France. According to INSEE, it is even the 37th most given first name to French children since 1900. In total, 280,865 have been born since the start of the 20th century, more than half of whom were born after 1980. in 1996 most of Antoine were born. It is then the sixth most attributed first name, with 6,749 births.

A logo, a flag and Tinder

Today, there are therefore almost 10,000 in this group, including one “Antoinette’s fifties”, believes Antoine Penhard, one of the main administrators of the community, and new requests continue to arrive every week. And the joke between friends has definitely changed scale: the Antoinist Republic now has an official logo – designed by an Antoine -, and materialized by goodies – made by other Antoine -, an anthem, and even a flag made by… Antoine Doublet, the official flag maker for the Élysée Palace.

In four years, a whole “Antoinist” culture has developed. And like any culture, they have their heroes, or rather their heroine: Clarisse. “She was the biggest promoter of our group”, says Antoine Penhard. Seduced by the idea, the young girl decided to match with all the Antoine she met on dating app Tinder to tell them about the group. “She brought hundreds of people back to the group via Tinder“laughs the moderator, while the founder of the group adds mischievously: “Now she is in a relationship with an Antoine”.

Next to Clarisse, there are the models of all these Antoine. They are called Dupont – the rugby player cannot ignore that the group exists, with each victory, his page is flooded with comments from Antoine -, without forgetting the Griezmanns and De Caunes – “he said it freaked him out, it looked like a cult and he didn’t want to set foot in it“laughs Antoine Penhard.

Antoine Bataillard too. The young man embarked on a crazy adventure in 2021: a Tour de France des Antoine. “I was supposed to go abroad for a month, but the Covid prevented me from doing so.he recalls. I had told my mother about the band. I only had to go to an Antoine, and since I was a month old, she told me ‘You just have to go see them all’. And I thought that was a great idea. I proposed the idea to the group, saying that I wanted to go through such and such a town or city and asking who was keen to host me. I only got yeses.”

“I took the first volunteers. I took my car for its technical inspection and I broke two days later with almost nothing, a few things and a tent in case things went wrong. The tent didn’t help me. not used.”

Antoine Bataillard, who completed a Tour de France of the Antoine

at franceinfo

“I met around forty Antoine during my journey. These were moments of exchange, exceptional moments of sharing”greets the 22-year-old student, who entrusts “the desire to be able to do another tour of France, passing through other cities”.

A community to support each other

But far from the wacky delusions, something else is played out on this group, which it is absolutely necessary to unravel to understand how much the original joke has evolved. Because by scrolling through the various publications, we discover in turn an Antoine who is looking for an internship, others who are struggling to find an apartment, still others who share their work, their creations, in a benevolence that would make anyone jealous ever tried to moderate a page on a social network. “There are always a lot of Antoine who are there to help other Antoines that they don’t even know, simply because they share the same first name. There is a natural solidarity that has been set up at the over the years and that is our strength”underlines, always amazed by the thing, Antoine Penhard.

They sometimes launch ‘raids’, a coordinated operation to give a post relating to an Antoine a boost of visibility. The latest? The publication of the mother of an Antoine, suffering from autism, who was looking for a place for her son in a specialized establishment. Not to mention the fundraisers that are sometimes organized. The most important raised 2,500 euros for the Secours populaire in 2021. “Between just someone asking for a calculator to be able to take an exam, someone asking for help moving four pieces of furniture between two streets or someone saying ‘I’ve lost my keys, can you help me?’ ‘East amazingabounds another Antoine, Pichlak by his last name. All of these events create memories that are even memorable.”

“It’s just great to have some kind of other family around that you can always count on.”

Antoine Pichlak, one of nearly 10,000 members of Neurchi d’Antoine

at franceinfo

“My apartment was emptied in half an hour”, remembers Antoine – another – who had to move from Bordeaux to Paris quickly. He, who defines himself as a “introvert, thank this group, through which he made many friends in both cities. A social function that the moderator, Antoine Penhard, readily acknowledges, who spends a lot of time managing the group and admits that his circle of friends “is more and more limited to the first name Antoine”. And the founder abounds: “Normally, you have maybe one or two friends who bear your first name at most. Indeed, in comparison, I can easily name maybe 200 Antoine with their surname”laughs Antoine Paulet. “There are even couples who have formed on the group!”

“The Smurfs’ Village”

Other articles would be needed to tell all the anecdotes gleaned here and there, from Antoine always ready to defend their “Saint-Prénom”, from the ‘Karao-toine’ to this Antoine, manager of a creperie and who “drink a shooter with all the Antoine who come”, from the wars against a group of Pierre to the ‘antoinist beers’ made by a brewer – who is necessarily called Antoine. Let’s dwell on a last tradition: the Antoinade, evenings only between Antoine.

“It is still quite weird because normally, when you go to a party, or you find yourself with friends, or it’s people you don’t know, but it’s often around a center of interest. There, the context is really unique, it’s super weird and super funny”, says yet another Antoine. And his roommate – Antoine obviously – to add: “Everyone does different things in life, so it’s very cool. It’s a bit like Smurf village.” A village which will meet again in Nantes, on September 2, for a new Antoinade, the “Nantoinade”. And Antoine Penhard to take on a goal: “Make it the greatest Antoinade in history”.