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Girl · Hebrew, through Greek and Latin
Elizabeth
Say it: ih-LIZ-uh-beth
Meaning
From Hebrew Elisheva 'my God is an oath'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
In medieval England the name usually appeared as Isabel; the Elizabeth spelling took over in the Tudor period.
Its wave through time
Timeless: in steady use for over a century
In the United States
- 1,658,880 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1887, about 1 in 54 girls
- 7,216 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
HebrewEarly ChristianEnglishFrenchGermanSpanishItalianPolishRussianHungarianAmerican
The family of the name
Other spellings: Elisabeth, Elisheba, Elsabeth, Elizabet
| French | Élisabeth |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Isabel |
| Italian | Elisabetta |
| Portuguese | Isabel |
| German | Elisabeth |
| Polish | Elżbieta |
| Russian | Yelizaveta |
| Hungarian | Erzsébet |
Famous bearers
- Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist
- Elizabeth I, queen of England
- Elizabeth of Hungary, 13th-century saint
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Royal and noble genealogies
- Parish baptism registers
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.