The English translation of „Le Petit Nicolas” by Goscinny and Sempe – names of characters

[qlelem]

Are you familiar with the French book series „Le Petit Nicolas”? I’d like to ask about your thoughts on translations of this series – mainly English translations, but I’m also curious what people think about other language versions.
Specifically, what do you think about the names used for the main characters (the boys)? Do they seem weird or obsolete, or maybe bring some associations? Do you think they fit the characters?

Here are some of the names as translated by Anthea Bell:
Nicolas – Nicholas

Alceste – Alec

Clotaire – Matthew

Geoffroy – Geoffrey

Eudes – Eddie

Agnan – Cuthbert

Rufus – Rufus

Joachim – Jeremy

I’m writing a MA thesis about the translations of this series into Polish and English and I would be extremely happy if you could help me with this issue. These names are quite characteristic in French (most of them are very rare) and I know that this was rendered accurately into Polish. However, I’m not a native speaker od English and it’s difficult for me to judge how these names are received by contemporary readers and how they could have been received in the past.