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Re: Ilsabe
in reply to a message by lac
Well, the German name book "Das große Vornamenlexikon" (Duden) does list Ilsabe as a German variant of Elisabeth.
However, I just did a quick internet search on the name - and it seems to have been used predominantly in the North of Germany (think Hamburg, Lübeck, Baltic coast...) and I hardly found any Ilsabe born after the year 1800.
(Most Ilsabe's listed were born some time between 1300 or 1400 and 1800, so the name seems to have fallen out of commen usage by that time.)
Then again, as I said, it was a very superficial search, so of course I could be wrong.

This message was edited 6/17/2010, 1:43 PM

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Thanks. Do you have any idea how Ilsabe would be pronounced?
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pronounciationI am German and would say it is pronounced: ILL-zah-buh. But I have never heard the name not even in a historical context.
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IL-sah-beh/IL-sah:-beh or IL-zah-beh/IL-zah:-beh was my first instinct, too. That's what my gut feeling told me - and gut feeling is all I have to offer in this case as I never heard the name pronounced, either.Then, however, I did some more research on the internet and I found a few (really just a few) modern-day Ilsabes and some of them seem to spell their name Ilsabé (like her http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medaille_f%C3%BCr_Verdienste_im_k%C3%BCnstlerischen_Volksschaffen_der_Deutschen_Demokratischen_Republik and her http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCrgermedaille_der_Stadt_Braunschweig - the woman who was given a medal in 2007), which makes me wonder if they don't pronounce it IL-sah-BEH/IL-zah-BEH or IL-sah-BAY/IL-zah-BAY along the lines of French names like Dorothée (Dorothee)...Briefly speaking: I'm just not sure.
Here is one of the historical Ilsabes (there were a few more...): http://home.foni.net/~adelsforschung1/meck21.htm
Um, I hope we are allowed to post links here? If not so I apologise.
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Elsabe is a rare name used in German-speaking countries, pronounced el-SAH-beh. My guess is that Ilsabe is just a variant transcription of Elsabe.
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Thank you.
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