A French couple have been banned from giving their baby boy what a prosecutor believes is a girl’s name.

The child was born in January of this year and his female parents decided to name him Amber – or Ambre in French.

However, when they went to officially register his birth in the town of Lorient, they were reported to the local prosecutor who decided the name risked confusing the child over his gender in later life - as it is generally considered a 'girl's name.'

The parents were ordered to appear in court, where a judge said she saw no grounds to force them to change the name.

However, as the decision was then appealed by the prosecutor, Ambre is effectively in limbo until April 2019 when the case will next be called.

The couple, supported by homosexual parents association Les Enfants d'Arc-en-Ciel, have questioned whether the prosecutor’s decision was motivated by homophobia.

In a post on Facebook, one of the boy’s mothers Alice Gondelle said the legal proceedings are “very long” and warned that it will be impossible to give Ambre a new name when he is two-years-old.

She said she is aware of 37 males named Ambre living in France.

It is not the first time the French courts have involved themselves in children’s names – ruling in 2015 that that a couple could not call their daughter Nutella.