>>>>>>It's my understanding that the word gullible is more appropriate, since it has the same meaning as we Europeans use the word naive.
>>>>>
>>>>>In English gullible has a negative conotation of being stupid or easily duped. Naive is softer more like unaware or trusting.
>>>>
>>>>Maybe innocent is the closest match?
>>>
>>>we do retain the little used word "naif" meaning a person without knowledge of evil which retains more of the original French meaning. As others have said, in current English, naive has a connotation of gullible and implies being a bit dull-witted.
>>>
>>>Innocent is indeed the closest match for the original meaning.
>>
>>How about spoken language? I assume that naif sounds totally similar to naive.
>
>It is a noun rather than an adjective and frankly it is used so seldom in spoken English I'm not sure most people would have any idea how to pronounce it. I think final sound is pronounced as an f rather than a v and it is pronounce more as one syllable as opposed to naive which is distinctly two syllables.

In French naif (or naïf) is the masculin version of naive (or naïve).