English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Isabel was the Spanish-Portuguese rendering of Elisabeth/Elizabeth [q.v.], from an ancient Hebrew name meaning "oath of God", via Isabeau & Ilsabeth. Probably came to Scotland and Britain via the French Isabelle.

Note Due to the derivation, it has been a long tradition in Scotland for Elizabeth and Isabel [and their variants, pet names, etc] to be used interchangeably, i.e. as synonyms. This can be confusing when searching through older records and care should be taken to consider this possibility when researching.

The 1841 Census of Aberdeenshire has a large number of variations in the spelling, almost all of which will be found using Soundex searching. However many of the abbreviated forms may not be found by Soundex; we have listed these above as diminutives. The most frequent spellings are shown under Isobel [q.v.], although there are many more.

In old documents in Latin, Isabella will generally have been used, with appropriate case endings, for Isabel and its variants.