Proper noun

1. used in English since the Middle Ages.

Quotations

• Mariana. O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part:

  Lend me your knees, and all my life to come,

  I'll lend you all my life to do you service.

• 1852 D. H. Jacques, A Chapter on Names, The Knickerbocker, or, New-York Monthly Magazine, Volume XL, August 1852, page 119:

  There is a silvery bell-like music in the name, which is exceedingly attractive, and which has made it a favorite with the poets. - - - Mary Howitt, in her Flower comparisons, has the following melodious lines:

  Now for mad-cap Isabel: / What shall suit her, pr'y thee tell? / Isabel is brown and wild; /Will be evermore a child;

• 1994 Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell), No Night Is Too Long, ISBN 067085560X ,page 110:

  I'm glad you spell your name like that. It's the best of all the ways to spell Isabel.

• 2002 Cynthia Heimel: If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet? Grove Press 2002. ISBN 0802139507 page 177:

  How many poor girls, who would have been wild and raging and beautiful and free sex goddesses if only their parents had found it in their hearts to name them Isabel, instead had to stuff their poor psyches into the name Heather?

Proper noun

1. of Spanish and Portuguese origin.