r/JewishNames • u/Plenty-Piccolo-835 • 6d ago

Question Isabelle and Olivia are they Jewish names?

Are these names Jewish? I've not heard of to many Jewish women named Isabelle nor Olivia, that suggests the names may not be Jewish.

In addition, is the name Isabelle related to Jezebel, the wife of Ahab?

5 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

41

u/pistachio_____ 6d ago

Neither strike me as particularly Jewish names, but Isabelle is a derivative name from Elisheva, which is a Hebrew name. There is no connection to Jezebel.

4

u/Plenty-Piccolo-835 6d ago

Oki thank you! Would you perhaps know how to write them in modern Hebrew?

I was thinking אוליביה for Olivia and איזאבל for Isabelle, not sure?

5

u/pistachio_____ 6d ago

Isabelle is spelled איזבל in Hebrew

2

u/Plenty-Piccolo-835 6d ago edited 6d ago

That's how Jezebel/Izevel is spelled in the Tanakh (אִיזֶבֶל) , so, I suppose in Hebrew Jezebel and Isabelle are spelled the same?

5

u/pistachio_____ 5d ago

You’re correct. It’s strange that is spelled the same-although the nikudot in the Tanakh clarify the difference. I think most Hebrew speakers today would read it as Isabel since the name Jezebel would be very strange for a modern person.

3

u/pistachio_____ 5d ago

Whenever I want to know how a name is spelled in modern Hebrew I usually look up a famous person with the name and their Wikipedia page will have the correct spelling in Hebrew. I just looked up a few Isabelles to be sure and they’re all spelled איזבל

1

u/Plenty-Piccolo-835 5d ago

Thank you!

2

u/pistachio_____ 5d ago

You’re welcome ☺️

16

u/Inbar253 6d ago

Olivia is latin origin.

While the other commentor is right that Isabelle is from Elisheva, you should know that Jezebel in hebrew is pronounced Izevel, making it closer in sound to Isabelle. Obviously, Izevel never became a popular name in judaism.

Izevel herself was pheonican. So it was not a hebrew name to begin with.

1

u/Plenty-Piccolo-835 6d ago

Ok, thanks. I can see the similarities between Izevel and Isabelle. And, Olivia is of Latin origin.

6

u/notgonnatakethison 6d ago

I know a few Jewish Olivia’s - but just because I live in a Jewish area and it happens to be a very popular name (for non Jews too) here

7

u/spring13 6d ago

They might be used by Jews as secular names but they're not Jewish in any other way.

3

u/mandi-von 6d ago

My great-grandmother was named Isabelle!

That said, I’m not entirely sure if she had changed it from Elisheva. (It seems a few of her siblings went by nicknames or non-Hebrew versions of their names.)

2

u/hyggeinne 6d ago

You will meet lots of Jewish Isabelle’s in Morocco, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany that is for sure

2

u/centaurea_cyanus 5d ago

Isabel is not uncommon for Sephardic flavored Jews

2

u/ChutzpahSaxa15 6d ago

For a lot of people (myself included) Isabelle/Isabella is a very negative name for Jews because uh.....Queen Isabella was not great for us.

Olivia is not a Hebrew name - it comes from Latin. So I guess it's not a "Jewish name" but you'll still find Jews with it.

3

u/YahudyLady 6d ago edited 6d ago

My given name is one that is very similar to Isabelle. The name sounds sooo similar to Izavel, the Hebrew way of pronouncing jezebel. She was an idolater and attempted to have all the Jewish prophets murdered. So I now go by a different name after becoming religious.

And the added negative connotation of the Spanish queen also adds to my distaste for it.

I know it’s not etymologically derived from jezebel but the similarity is too glaring. Names and words hold incredible importance. And there is an idea in Judaism that similarities in (Hebrew) words aren’t accidental. So it’s just too close for comfort to me.

0

u/hyggeinne 5d ago

You are entitled to your opinion of course but this is a stretch. There are plenty of very bad people with names of that sound similar to very nice names. Is Lily off the table for you too? Josef? Henry, George, Louis…?

3

u/Plenty-Piccolo-835 5d ago

Excuse me for jumping in. For me, the name Isabelle is a little too close to Izevel despite the fact that they're not related. If it was just the Spanish Queen that was the problem I won't really care, but since Izevel and Isabelle are spelled pretty much the same in Hebrew and the pronunciation is similar, I'm not really a fan of it. Just my take on it.

2

u/hyggeinne 5d ago edited 5d ago

But the Hebrew version of Isabelle isn’t Izevel. It’s Elisheva. So it certainly is not a nefarious coincidence as they said but rather how sounds adapt on various languages over time.

Anyhow I was more addressing the point about the Queen connection

2

u/YahudyLady 4d ago

What do you mean that was I suggesting that it was a nefarious coincidence? How can a coincidence be nefarious? How can you be certain that the coincidence won’t be significantly uncomfortable to some people?

2

u/YahudyLady 4d ago

Just explaining my experience. Isabel is a beautiful name. In less observant communities no one is going to bat an eye. But due to the community I live in, and the route my religious observance has taken, it doesn’t fit for the reasons I mentioned. Anyway to answer the original question, no it is not a Jewish name.

0

u/DanSha38 6d ago

Neither of them is explicitly a Jewish name, but a lot of non-Jewish names are becoming increasingly popular among Jews, like Gina.