A similar journey we took after our daughter was born. I downloaded close to a thousand names from the internet and shared it with my wife to short list few of them. Among the ones that she short listed was the beautiful name, “Isabel”. It means “God’s Promise”. We both loved the name and were happy that we had finalised on a good name so soon. Even the internet ratings agreed with us that Isabel was a popular days over the past few decades.
In history while most of us were unaware, there lived a woman by name Jezebel. This lady after almost 3000 years influenced us in naming our baby as Isabel.
Jezebel was a crafty, malicious, revengeful, and cruel; a queen who is branded as being the first great instigator of persecution against the saints of God. She is also mentioned in the chapter of Revelation and is meant to be synonymous for a wicked woman.
At the same time Isabel as such is not mentioned in the Bible. But the name
What does all this has to do with us naming our daughter Isabel? Everything! Unfortunately for my daughter, she was born to south Indian parents, with Malayalam as the mother tongue. In Malayalam, Jezebel is pronounced as “Yesabel”.
Both of us fought with all our relatives to sell the point that Yesabel mentioned in the Malayalam Bible is not Isabel but Jezebel. Confused? Well that is how first our relatives felt and in due course of time they confused us and convinced us in changing my daughter’s name.
Not aware of any of this chaos, all along Laura Thomas was relaxing on her monther’s arms. Yes eventually after evaluating few names with settled down with “Laura,” a non-biblical name. Meaning of which very few of my relatives would know, therefore fewer the problems that would arise.
Laura is from the word “
With prayers, I remain. Have a great day!
13 comments:
so thats the story behind Laura's name...Very interesting. And I couldnt help smiling when your daughter was born because I was so sure her father would be doing loads of research for the perfect name..
Great baby name search story. If Isabella is a variant of Elizabeth isn't Elizabeth also the name of Abraham wife and she wasn't considered to be an evil, malicious person.
im a south indian with Malayalam as mother tongue and I had come across the same incident in my life too.
people often confuse my name for jezebel and inspite of endless arguments that Isabella is the Italian version of Elizabeth, nobody is willing to accept the truth.
negativity in people's min can however never be removed!
im Isabella. and I think its one of the prettiest name I have come across :) :)
cuz it means "my god is abundance."/"my god is an oath"
I love the name isbel .my daughter too have. I also finds it difficult to convince my colleagues, relatives... After all it's just a name..
Abraham's wife is Sarah. Elizabeth is Zachariah's wife, John the Baptist's mother, and the Virgin Mary'so cousin .
Abraham's wife is Sarah. Elizabeth is Zachariah's wife, John the Baptist's mother, and the Virgin Mary'so cousin .
We too despite being born in a South Indian Keralite family named our darling daughter Isabelle and the name came to me during break time at work when I was praying for my little one's name. My husband loved it and the name stuck. Though a lot of people including relatives try to talk us out of it even now after she turned 7 yrs old, by making us feel bad; we still hold firm that she is 'the promise of Our Lord'
Glad to read now that Isabelle is a variant of Elisheba or Elizabeth who was the wife of Zacharius and mother of Jesus's best friend John the Baptist. She too is growing to love her best friend Jesus. References: http://www.biblical-baby-names.com/meaning-of-isabelle.html
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/isabelle-is-hebrew.842560/
I've been watching a movie called "Elija Story" posted by a JesusChristKingdom in Arabic, and was shocked when I heard they are calling Jezebel "Isabel." It's worth seeing when the name Isabel became popular in Western Europe -- and why it is not used by Orthodox Christians -- and the fact that it stands along other names and aspects related to the Renaissance's subtle and ongoing return to paganism.
This is surprising. When I hear Isabel I know it is a variation of Isabella and bella means beautiful in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian etc. Belle means beautiful in French. It does have a ring to it and sounds elegant and was the name of many royals and has a historical connection to Spain. After an Internet search it is similar sounding to to a word/phrase meaning garbage in Hebrew and Arabic and probably other languages too (according to forum comments on WordReference dot com and BehindTheName dot com) It is not popular in some countries because of this and it supposedly translates the same as Jezebel the wicked queen in some languages. In English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and other languages this is not the case. I think the accent of a Hebrew or Arabic speaker still makes it a different name and a basic explanation of Isabel's meaning and history differentiates it from that. Names and meanings vary as they pass from language to language. Also worth noting languages in which the name is not popular generally do not use the Latin alphabet and when I typed it in Google translate the Arabic for Isabel and Jezebel is 'iizabil. However, acccording to namenerds dot cot the Arabic for Isabel is 'Ahd and Sajidah. In Armenian Isabel is Zabel, Eliz, and Yeghizapet. Isobella or Anabella are alternatives to the name Isabel. I chose SewIsabel dot com for my blog name because of the meaning 'God is my oath' and its' Latin flare. I really was not aware of the meanings in other languages. Fortunately, it appears to just not translate obviously and easily. Officially and according to nearly all name websites (I like namenerds dot com) it comes from the Hebrew Elisheba and means “God is my oath” and is a romance-language name from the Italian for Elizabeth or Elisabetta.
Going thru the very same roller coaster ride . We named Isabel and it was so in the medical records of the hospital and came home after discharge. . Grandparents somehow remember such characters in bible . Had to go back to the hospital and get corrected as the default name wich was just Baby of mother name..
we get NEW names anyway lol. God isn't going to stone us over our childrens names. my kids name is Isabel. Elizabeth had the greatest womb ever lol Jesus said no greater born of a womb than John the Baptist. it's ok. Names are important to teach us as are numbers times ect. as The Holy Spirit teaches and it's awesome to learn! God is Good He Ultimately Names. He's the BEST PARENT
Jezebel in Hebrew is pronounced Izehbel.
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