né

Né is the masculine past participle of the French verb naître, meaning "to be born." As an adjective, né translates to "born" and is commonly used in biographical contexts. The feminine form is née, used when referring to a female subject. For groups, the forms nés (masculine or mixed) and nées (feminine) are used.

In practice, né is used to indicate a person’s birth details in biographies and encyclopedic entries. It can appear immediately after a person’s name, as in Jean Dupont, né le 12 janvier 1980, à Paris, ouvrier, or embedded in clauses such as Il est né en 1980. The phrase can also be extended with place of birth, date of birth, or both, for example, né le 5 juin 1975 à Lyon.

Grammatical agreement is important: the form of the participle changes to match the subject’s gender and number. For a male subject, né is used; for a female subject, née is used; for multiple people, say a mixed or male group, nés is used, and for a group of females, nées is used.

Etymologically, né derives from naître, itself from Latin nasci, to be born. In addition to its biographical use, the word can appear in historical or literary descriptions to convey birth-related information. It is not a separate noun but a participial adjective that remains in agreement with the subject and does not require an auxiliary verb when used in appositive or attributive positions.