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[Facts] Re: Thanks, but
If you're talking about the popularity of Isabelle/Isabella in recent years in the U.S., I could see it being a factor.Isabelle first enters the SSA list in 1991 after not being in the top 1000 for almost 40 years (as an aside - my mother, born during this hiatus period, still thinks of Isabelle as a very dated/"old lady" name!) That was the same year that Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" came out, featuring main character Belle as "Beauty".So I think the popularity of the Disney movie, and the connection of Belle = Beauty in people's minds, could have led to Isabelle becoming popular.
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Oddly, I just noticed that Isabella shows a similar pattern on the SSA list (off it for the same 40 year gap as Isabelle, then back in 1990), but Isabel has never been off the list, just hovering at #400-500 for those years, and a correspondingly more gradual recent rise.I wonder why that is? Why would Isabel be used when Isabella and Isabelle were clearly not? Maybe that is the subject of another thread?
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Isabel is a classic Spanish name, I imagine it would be popular among Hispanics.
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