The growing hull in Saint-Nazaire had no formal designation except "T-6" ("T" for "Transat", an alternate name for the French Line, and "6" for "6th"), the contract name. Many names were suggested including "Doumer", after Paul Doumer, the recently assassinated President of France; and originally, "La Belle France." Finally "Normandie" was chosen. In France, boat prefixes properly depend on the boat name's gender, but non-sailors mostly use the masculine form, inherited from the French terms for boat, which can be ""paquebot"", ""navire"", ""bateau"", or ""bâtiment"", but English speakers refer to boats as feminine ("she's a beauty") and the GCT carried many rich American customers. The CGT wrote that their boat was to be called simply ""Normandie"", preceded by neither "le" nor "la" (French masculine/feminine for "the") to avoid any confusion.