Isabele
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath".
Name Census estimates that about 172 living Americans carry the first name Isabele. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Isabele today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Isabele births was 2003 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Isabele. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Isabele with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
172
~ 1 in 1,992,758 Americans
Peak year
2003
16 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,653
Tracked since 1919
Census
Isabele in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 533 people with the first name Isabele, which placed it at #19,699 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#19,699
National first-name rank
People counted
533
533 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
47.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Isabele
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isabele is Hispanic at 47.7%. The next largest groups are White (42.6%) and Black (3.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Isabele described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Isabele at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino47.7% · 254
- White42.6% · 227
- Black or African American3.6% · 19
- Two or more races3.4% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 15
Popularity
Isabele: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Isabele from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 112 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Isabele by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Isabele during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Isabele
The given name Isabele originated from the Hebrew name Elisheva, which means "my God is an oath" or "God is abundance." It is a variant spelling of the more common Isabel or Isabella. The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Spain and France.
Isabele was a favored name among European royalty. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name was Princess Isabele of France, born in 1292, the daughter of King Philip IV of France. Another notable figure was Queen Isabele of Bavaria, who lived from 1370 to 1435 and was the Queen consort of France as the wife of King Charles VI.
In the 16th century, Isabele de' Medici, born in 1542, was an Italian princess from the famous Medici family of Florence. She was renowned for her patronage of the arts and her love for literature. Another historical figure was Isabele Clara Eugenia, born in 1566, who was the Archduchess of Austria and co-sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands.
The name Isabele also found its way into literature and art. One of the most famous examples is Isabele, the character from Giovanni Boccaccio's medieval Italian classic, The Decameron, written in the 14th century. In the 19th century, the French painter Édouard Manet created a renowned work titled "The Luncheon on the Grass," featuring a woman named Isabele as the central figure.
Other notable individuals with the name Isabele include Isabele Perthuis, a French novelist born in 1890, and Isabele Adjani, a French actress born in 1955, known for her roles in films such as "The Story of Adele H" and "Camille Claudel."
While the name Isabele has had various spellings over the centuries, its underlying meaning and historical significance have remained, reflecting the enduring influence of this name across different cultures and time periods.
People
Isabele + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Isabele as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Isabele: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Isabele?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 172 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Isabele going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,992,758 US residents.
Is Isabele a common name?
We classify Isabele as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 181 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Isabele most popular?
The single biggest year for Isabele was 2003, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Isabele is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Isabele in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 533 people with the name Isabele, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,699 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Isabele in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Isabele?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Isabele leans strongly female. 527 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 8 male bearers (1.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Isabele?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Isabele is Hispanic at 47.7%. The next largest groups are White (42.6%) and Black (3.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Isabele most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Isabele in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.7% (254 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Isabele in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Isabele a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Isabele in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Isabele still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Isabele in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Isabele can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Isabele?
Want to know how many people share the name Isabele? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.