View Message

Ivelisse (also spelled Ivelis, Yvelisse, etc.) has been well-used among Hispanics in the USA and in parts of Latin America (especially Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) since at least 1960. It seems to be a 20th-century creation blending Yvette or Yveline with the -lis or -is endings popular for feminine names in Latin America. There may be a literary or pop culture origin in Puerto Rico, but if so I haven't yet been able to discover it. There is an outside chance it's someone's reactivation of a rare medieval French name, but I haven't been able to find any references to it in French name books.

I'm surprised that "no one she ever knew" had the name, because it's not hard to find examples of accomplished Puerto Rican women on the web named Ivelisse. Here are a few:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivelisse_Echevarria

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/bios/aviles.html

http://www.artepublico.puertorico.pr/english/artistas/jimenez_ivelisse/index.htm#biografia

http://www.bu.edu/dbin/anatneuro/our_people/faculty/sanchez.php

• the meaning of the name Ivelisse - steven clarke(stevenc@projectrenewal.org)  Apr 10 2006, 11:01:13 AM
  • Re: the meaning of the name Ivelisse - Cleveland Kent Evans  Apr 10 2006, 12:55:37 PM
    • Yvelise - Lumia  Apr 11 2006, 4:03:20 AM