Isabel

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Locally spelled Isabelle in FR France, BE Belgium and Izabela in PL Poland.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●(measured from records)

Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.

How Isabel is read●(measured from records)

Isabel is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• Spanish74%

  From Hebrew Elisheba via Greek; 'God is my oath', 'consecrated by an oath to God'.

  as a name·Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios

• English8.1%

  French form that entered England from the royal houses; became one of the first versions of Elizabeth used in Ireland.

  as a name·Irish first names

  from Isabel, a form of Elizabeth, developed in Provence; first attested William Isabel 1275 SRWo

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• Portuguese7.5%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Isabel in Portuguese.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Isabel is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name41 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Isabél, Isaebel, Ïsäbêl, Ísabel, Ïsäbël

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Isabél

• French given name4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Belgium

  Also written Isa-Bel, Isabèl

89 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Isabel is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• from the female personal name Isabel (see Isbell). SSSSHES Isabel and Isabelle are documented as family names in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, in 1648. Other families, from Normandy, France, are documented in Sainte-Famille, Quebec, in 1669.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Of Spanish origin: a much altered version of (Elizabeth (see main dictionary). 4 284 -

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• From Spanish. See main dictionary. Also: Isabelle.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Isabella of Portugalb. 1428ESnot in their usual nameQueen of Castile
• Isabella I of Castileb. 1451ESnot in their usual namequeen of the Crown of Castile, from 1474 to 1504; first queen of a dynastically-united Spain, from 1479 to 1504 (1451–1504)
• Isabel de Portugalb. 1503PT16th-century Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Spain (1503-1539)
• Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spainb. 1566ESnot in their usual nameInfanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria (1566-1633)
• Princess Isabella of Parmab. 1741ESnot in their usual nameArchduchess of Austria
• Isabel II de Españab. 1830ESQueen of Spain from 1833 to 1868
• Isabel Martínez de Perónb. 1931ARfirst female president of Argentina from 1974 to 1976
• Vivienne Westwoodb. 1941GBnot in their usual nameBritish fashion designer (1941–2022)
• Arantxa Sánchez Vicariob. 1971ESnot in their usual nameSpanish tennis player
• Shakirab. 1977COnot in their usual nameColombian singer-songwriter (born 1977)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What are other forms of the name Isabel?

In the etymology graph, Elizabeth, Lisa and Betty are forms of the same name in other languages; Izzy, Belinha and Ibbie are recorded short or pet forms.

What does the name Isabel mean, and where does it come from?

From Hebrew Elisheba via Greek; 'God is my oath', 'consecrated by an oath to God'. Recorded by Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios.

Is Isabel a male or female name?

Isabel is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

In which country does Isabel have the most bearers?

In Brazil, the national register counted about 359 thousand people named Isabela, more than in any other country we hold.

How common is the name Isabel?

In Spain, the national register counted 237,075 people named Isabel, about 1 in 211 residents.

How common is Isabel compared with other names?

In Brazil, Isabel is the 95th most common given name of 474,894 given names recorded there.