January to June

• 4 January – Maurice Rigobert Marie-Sainte, Martinique Roman Catholic clergyman (died 2017)
• 6 January – Capucine, actress (died 1990)
• 11 January – Andréa Guiot, soprano (died 2021)
• 17 January – Jean Barraqué, composer (died 1973)
• 23 January – Jeanne Moreau, film actress (died 2017)
• 24 January – Michel Serrault, actor (died 2007)
• 26 January – Roger Vadim, film director (died 2000)
• 10 February – Jean-Luc Lagardère, engineer and businessman (died 2003)
• 23 February – André Strappe, international soccer player (died 2006)
• 1 March – Jacques Rivette, filmmaker (died 2016)
• 3 March – Pierre Michelot, double bass player (died 2005)
• 2 April – Serge Gainsbourg, poet, singer-songwriter, actor and director (died 1991)
• 12 April – Jean-François Paillard, conductor (died 2013)
• 28 April – Yves Klein, painter (died 1962)
• 2 May – Georges-Arthur Goldschmidt, French writer, German translator
• 3 May – Jacques-Louis Lions, mathematician (died 2001)^[1]
• 5 May – Jacques Médecin, politician (died 1998)
• 28 May – André Schwarz-Bart, novelist (died 2006)
• 29 June – Jean-Louis Pesch, writer (died 2023)
• 30 June – Nathaniel Tarn, poet, essayist, anthropologist and translator

July to December

• 2 July – Line Renaud, actress
• 3 July – Georges-Jean Arnaud, author (died 2020)
• 6 July – Bernard Malgrange, mathematician
• 10 July – Bernard Buffet, painter (died 1999)
• 13 July – Jeanne Loriod, musician (died 2001)
• 26 July – Elliott Erwitt, French-American photographer and director
• 30 July – Paul Bisciglia, film actor (died 2010)
• 2 August – Yoko Tani, French-born Japanese actress and nightclub entertainer (died 1999

)^[2][3]

• 6 August
  • Jean-Christophe Averty, television and radio director (died 2017)
  • Michel Clouscard, Marxist philosopher and sociologist (died 2009)
  • Jean Carrière, writer (died 2005)
• 14 August
  • Jacques Rouffio, film director and screenwriter (died 2016)
  • Joëlle Bernard, film and television actress (died 1977)
• 21 September – Édouard Glissant, writer, poet and literary critic (died 2011)
• 27 September – Elizabeth F. Neufeld, French-born American geneticist
• 3 October – Christian d'Oriola, Olympic gold medal-winning foil fencer (died 2007)
• 23 October – Marthe Mercadier, actress (died 2021)
• 31 October – Jean-François Deniau, statesman, diplomat, essayist and novelist (died 2007)
• 13 November – Michel Gauquelin, psychologist and statistician (died 1991)
• 17 November – Arman, artist (died 2005)
• 2 December – Guy Bourdin, photographer (died 1991)
• 30 December – Christian Millau, food critic and author (died 2017)
• 31 December – Siné, cartoonist (died 2016)

Full date unknown

• Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, psychoanalyst (died 2006)
• Jean-Jacques Millant, bow maker (died 1998)
• Jacques Poirier, painter (died 2002)

Full date unknown

• Achille Maffre de Baugé, poet (born 1855)