Based on data from French dialects, the article discusses the motivational patterns of the formation of French animal names, notably, of those derived from personal names. The author identifi es the following ways of deanthroponymic formation of animal names: realization of the personal name's connotations (e.g. Robert ‘herdsman' > Robin ‘ox'), onomatopoeia (e.g. marcou, matou ‘cat' — derivatives from Marc and Mathieu; gagate ‘goose' — by reduplication from Agathe), phonetic attraction of a personal name to a common noun (e.g. martre ~ Martin ‘marten', or coq ~ Côla ‘cock'), appellativization of the name of a folkloric character (for instance, Renart > renard ‘fox'), and replacement of a taboo word by deanthroponymic derivatives (e.g. Guillaume and Jean as designations of a wolf). The author argues that the present overview refl ects all main patterns of deonymic derivation as applied to animal names.