Isabel

Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of Elisabeth (ultimately Hebrew Elisheva), Arising in the 12th century, it became popular in England in the 13th century following the marriage of Isabella of Angoulême to the king of England.

This set of names is a Spanish variant of the Hebrew name Elisheba through Latin and Greek represented in English and other western languages as Elisabeth.[2][3] These names are derived from the Latin and Greek renderings of the Hebrew name based on both etymological and contextual evidence (the use of Isabel as a translation of the name of the mother of John the Baptist).[4] The variant form originated through the loss of the first syllable and the replacement of final /t/ with /l/ (as /t/ does not appear word-finally in standard Spanish).[5] Elisabeth was understood in Spain as a name with the masculine definite article el "the", that is to say *El Isabeth, from it, the short form *Isabeth where the final -el was substituted to -eth, both for esthetical reasons or feminization,[2] or the entire syllable -bel was substituted to -beth, by analogy with bella "pretty, beautiful".

Another possibility is that the name comes from the Hebrew אִיזֶבֶל‎ ʾĪzeḇel (see Jezebel).

Both forms of the name exist concurrently in various languages. Both names have been borrowed into multiple other languages, giving rise to various local forms.