Isabel
Meaning of Isabel
Isabel, a concise and mellifluous offshoot of Elizabeth, traces its etymological lineage from the Hebrew Elishevaʿ—“my God is an oath”—through the Greco-Latin Elisabeth and the medieval Provençal and Castilian renderings that softened the central ‑th- into the sibilant heard today (Spanish ee-sah-BEL; English ih-ZAY-buhl). Carried across Europe by dynastic marriages and sustained in the English-speaking world by literary portraits such as Henry James’s self-possessed Isabel Archer, the name has long evoked a poised synthesis of courtly gravitas and understated elegance. In Anglo-American usage it benefited from the late-Victorian affection for historically resonant yet uncluttered forms, while in the United States its statistical trajectory reveals a measured durability: after hovering between the 150th and 400th positions for much of the twentieth century, Isabel advanced steadily into the national Top 100 by 2008 before receding to the mid-160s in recent cohorts—an arc that underscores both its perennial familiarity and its immunity to the volatility of shorter-lived fashions. Variants such as Isabelle, Isobel, and the archaic Ysabel attest to its cross-cultural adaptability, yet the spare, four-syllable Isabel remains distinctive for parents who seek a historically grounded, internationally intelligible, and quietly sophisticated choice for a daughter.
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 Maria de Alcântara, Duchess of Goiás - Isabel Maria de Alcantara Brasileira, the only Duchess of Goias, was a Brazilian noble and the acknowledged illegitimate daughter of Emperor Pedro I and Domitila de Castro, baptized on 31 May 1824. |
| 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 Oakeshott is a British political journalist. |
| 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 Andrews Burgess was an Arizona politician and public official who advanced federal transportation safety as a National Transportation Safety Board member. |
