Isabel
Meaning of Isabel
Isabel is the Spanish and Portuguese form of Elizabeth, which comes from the Hebrew name Elisheba, usually explained as "my God is an oath." It has also been used in Britain since the Middle Ages. In Spanish it is pronounced ee-sah-BEL; in English it is usually IZ-uh-bel.
In fiction, Isabel Archer is the heroine of Henry James's novel The Portrait of a Lady. Well-known namesakes include the Chilean American novelist Isabel Allende, author of The House of the Spirits, and Isabel Wilkerson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote The Warmth of Other Suns.
In the U.S., Isabel climbed from 404th among girls' names in 1989 to its highest rank, 83rd, in 2003. It has slipped down the rankings since then, to 176th in 2025, when 1,746 girls were given the name.
Pronunciation
Spanish
- Pronunced as ee-sah-BEL (i.sa.ˈβel)
English
- Pronunced as ih-ZAY-buhl (/ɪzˈeɪbəl/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Isabel
| Isabel Allende is a Chilean American novelist, famed for magical realism in The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts, and honored with major awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. |
| Isabel Perón - Isabel Martinez de Peron, the third wife of Juan Peron, was an Argentine politician who served as vice president and first lady before becoming the first woman to lead a country as president, heading Argentina from 1974 to 1976 and later the Justicialist Party. |
| Isabel Roberts was a Prairie School architect who worked in the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and later partnered with Ida Annah Ryan in the Orlando firm Ryan and Roberts. |
| Isabel Lucas is an Australian actress, model, and environmentalist known for Home and Away and films like Transformers and Immortals, later joining MacGyver and winning Scream and Young Hollywood awards. |
| Isabel Wilkerson is an American journalist and author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste, and the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. |
| Isabel Briggs Myers was an American writer who co-created the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, and identified as an INFP. |
| Isabel Townsend Pell was an American socialite who joined the French Resistance in World War II and was later honored with the Legion of Honour. |
| Isabel Maxwell - Isabel Sylvia Margaret Maxwell is a French born entrepreneur and Magellan cofounder, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer who later served as president of Commtouch and directed Israel Venture Network's social entrepreneur program from 2004 to 2010. |
| Isabel Granada - Isabella Villarama Granada was a singer and actress from the Philippines. |
| Maria Isabel Preysler Arrastia is a Spanish and Filipino socialite and television host, and the mother of Enrique Iglesias, Julio Iglesias Jr., Chabeli Iglesias, Tamara Falco, 6th Marchioness of Grinon, and Ana Boyer Preysler. |
| Isabel Sandoval is a Filipino filmmaker and actress based in the United States, known for directing Senorita, Aparisyon, Lingua Franca, and the short Shangri-La for Miu Miu Womens Tales. |
| Isabel Toledo was a Cuban American fashion designer in New York City celebrated for meticulous craftsmanship and elegant simplicity. |
| Isabel Gunn was a Scottish laborer who disguised herself as a man to work for the Hudson's Bay Company, becoming the first European woman to reach what is now Western Canada until giving birth in 1807 revealed her secret. |
