Talk:Isabel

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[edit] Isabella means Isabel?

Hi. I didn't get why there are three "Isabellas" listed here. It seems to me that this is a whole other name, despite the obvious similarity. Wouldn't it be better to create another Disambiguation page for "Isabella" and transfer those entries there? Then, to prevent any problems, we could add a "See also" section to each, directing to the other name, given the similarities. But as it stands, it leads to the conclusion that one can say "Isabel" and actually mean "Isabella", which I don't believe to be the case. I can carry out this suggested changes, unless anyone wants to object. Regards, Redux 17:30, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

There are two reasons for disambiguating Isabel, Isabella, Isabelle, and other spellings on a single page: (1) The spellings are really variants of the same name (the same woman may be named "Isabel" in an English source, "Isabelle" in a French source and "Isabella" in a Spanish source); and (2) The point of a disambiguation page is to assist the reader in finding a page they are looking for. Disambiguating variant spellings on a single page helps the reader who isn't sure how to spell the name they are looking for — or who doesn't know which of the variants Wikipedia is likely to use. Gdr 15:38, 2005 May 8 (UTC)

Actually, the Spanish version would be Isabel, the English could be also Isabella, which is the Italian version, too, as well as the Scottish. French use Isabelle and Isabeau and Ysabeau. 217.140.193.123 10:10, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

What is the origin of this name?? Where did it began to spread??

[edit] Origin of name

What is the origin of this name? Does it come from Elizabeth, is that why it is translated as such in English at times? Isabella I know is NOT a Spanish name (Isabella of Castile was Isabel of Castile in reality). It seems that the Iberian Isabel comes from the French Isabelle which may come from the Italian Isabella, but this is just a guess. (I think this soley because Isabela or Isabella aren't names in Castilian or Portuguese, but I could be wrong.) Any name historians out there?

As far as I know, Isabel is the Spanish form of Elizabeth. In Spanish, there is no final /t/, hence /t/ became /l/. (In medieval times, Elizabeth didn't have a modern English th sound). Isabella etc. are dervived from the Spanish name. Wathiik 16:27, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and edited the origin of the name in the article. The derivation from "Isis Bella" strikes me as a "folk etymology" of the most obvious sort. It is extremely unlikely that anyone would have used a Latin adjective (bella) to describe an Egyptian goddess (Isis). Even when Egypt was part of the Roman empire, the Romans in Egypt spoke Greek, and when speaking Greek they translated the name Isis as Aphrodite (considered to be the same goddess). (If the Egyptian Romans had spoken Latin, they would have called her Venus.) Finally, the etymological link from a presumably ancient name "Isisbella" to medieval ProvenÇal "Isabel" is all but impossible to make, whereas Hebrew Elisheva > Greek Elissabet > Latin Elisabeth > Provencal Isabel is both straightforward and well documented. A key to the chain is the influence of Arabic in southeastern Europe. Elizabeth in Arabic is Al-Isabeth, with the first syllable taken to be the Arabic article "Al." Some languages, like Spanish, tended to preserve "al" as part of the words and names derived from Arabic, but Provencal, like Italian and French, usually dropped the article (compare Sp. azucar with It. zucchero, Fr. sucre, and Eng. sugar, all from Ar. as-sukkar). The Provencal derivation of Isabel from Elisabeth, influenced by Arabic Al-Isabeth, is therefore very straightforward.

I also took the liberty of deleting an irrelevant paragraph on the name Jezebel, which (despite the similarity in sound) is completely unrelated to the name Isabel and has no business in this article. --Potosino 04:01, 9 August 2007 (UTC)