This paper focuses on the current trend of using clipped or abbreviated proper names in contemporary French. Its aim is to describe the specific features of onomastics in the French language. The treatment is based on the author’s doctoral thesis defended in 2012 at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc, in which clipping was found to often affect proper names. This led to a more detailed and systematic analysis of clippings with a high frequency, proper names and surnames. In the French press, these words are often presented in a playful manner. Journalists know how to play with proper names — not only with those of famous people, but also with various other names. It is therefore not only the need for brevity that may have created clipping but also the need for playfulness that might have motivated the birth of this phenomenon.