Isabella
Feminine · “From Hebrew Elisheva”
Isabella is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 417,001 girls against 453 boys since 1880.
Isabella began as a southern European stretching of Elizabeth, and by the late Middle Ages it belonged to queens and duchesses across Spain, Italy and the Habsburg lands. It has four soft syllables that most people can spell on the first hearing, and it has never really left European naming records in eight hundred years. In English-speaking countries it now charts on both sides of the Atlantic at once.
How old is the name Isabella?
Isabella was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Isabella alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 406,000 people named Isabella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Isabella most popular?
Isabella peaked in 2009, reaching #1 nationally. Today it ranks #7, 6 places below that high. See the whole 2009 chart.
Isabella appears on these lists:
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- Every #1 name in American history
- America's top 100 names right now
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- The steadiest names in America
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- all guides
Works in British and Italian families too:
Where it comes from
From Elisheva to Isabella
The story of Isabella
Elisheva appears in the Hebrew Bible, passed into Greek as Elisabet, and from there into Latin and every Christian language of Europe. In medieval Occitan and Spanish speech the opening syllable softened and the final one dropped, leaving Isabel — treated for centuries as a name in its own right rather than a variant. Italian and Latin documents added the -a, and Isabella became the form used for noblewomen and royalty, among them Isabella d'Este in Renaissance Mantua and Isabella of Austria, queen consort of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. English took the name up through Norman and later continental contact, and has kept both Isabel and Isabella in circulation ever since.
Meaning
From Hebrew Elisheva, "my God is an oath"
Isabella is the Latinate form of Isabel, which arose in medieval Spain and southern France as a reshaping of Elizabeth. The Hebrew root Elisheva is standardly read "my God is an oath"; a minority reading gives "my God is abundance."
Cultural footprint
Isabella Rossellini (b. 1952) — Model and actress, daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini
Isabella d'Este (b. 1474) — Renaissance patron so influential she was called "the First Lady of the world"
Isabella Bird (b. 1831) — Victorian explorer, first woman elected to the Royal Geographical Society
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Elisheva
- Elisabet
- Elizabeth
- Isabel
- Isabella
Related forms: Isabel · Isabelle · Isabel · Izabela · Izabella · Isobel
Pronouncing Isabella
iz-uh-BEL-uh
Stress on the third syllable. Spanish and Italian speakers keep the same shape, with a crisper first vowel: ee-sa-BEL-la.
Nicknames for Isabella
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 2008 — Twilight's Bella Swan
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 201022,936 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1reached in 2009
- Change vs 2022
- −9.3%10,666 in 2025, from 11,761
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Isabella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Isabel in Spanish — same name
- Isabelle in French — same name
- Isabel in Portuguese — same name
- Izabela in Polish — same name
- Izabella in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Isobel in Scottish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Isabellas among us
people named Isabella are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 151 born in 2025 was named Isabella
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jennifer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Isabella's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jennifer climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jennifer's path sketches the road Isabella is walking now.
Isabella sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Isabella is headed
Isabella should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Isabella beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Isabella in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized and spelled correctly in most of Europe and the Americas, with matching forms in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Polish.
- An unbroken written record stretching back to the Middle Ages, carried by queens, consorts, writers and scientists.
- Several well-worn short forms — Bella, Izzy, Belle, Ella — so a child can choose how formal to sound.
- Charts in England and Wales, Canada and Scotland as well as the US, which matters for families who move or have relatives abroad.
- It is common enough that sharing a classroom or a friendship group with another Isabella is a realistic prospect, often distinguished by initials.
- Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Izabella all circulate at once, so expect to spell it out on forms and correct the occasional letter.
- Bella took on wide currency through Isabella "Bella" Swan of the Twilight novels; the association has faded but some people still make it.
- At four syllables it is a long first name, which is worth saying aloud with your surname before deciding.
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Isabella
Feminine · #7 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Isabellas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 406,000 people named Isabella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Isabella in 2025?
- Isabella ranks #7 among US girl names in 2025, with 10,666 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Isabella?
- About 1 in every 151 US girls born in 2025 was named Isabella — 10,666 in all.
- Will my child share the name Isabella with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 6 classrooms will have a child named Isabella.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Isabella's chart?
- Isabella climbed after 2008 — Twilight's Bella Swan.
Ranked beside Isabella
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Mia#6 · Evelyn#8 · Sofia#9 · Sophia#5 · Eliana#10 · Amelia#4 · Emma#3 · Ava#11
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Isabella? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Isabella and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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