Isolde

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Girl · Celtic or Germanic (disputed)

Isolde

Say it: ih-SOHL-duh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Uncertain. Often linked to a Welsh or Germanic root, but scholars disagree.

Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.

The Tristan romances made it a real name in 13th-century England, where it appears in records as Isolda and Isot.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

05101518801900192019401960198020002020Peak 2007per million babies of that sex
  • 258 babies given this name since 1971
  • At its height in 2007, about 1 in 73,900 girls
  • 12 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914

Used by

EnglishFrenchWelshCornishGerman

The family of the name

Other spellings: Isolda, Isot, Iseult, Ysolde

FrenchIseut
WelshEsyllt
GermanIsolde
ItalianIsotta

Famous bearers

  • Isolde, heroine of the Tristan legend

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • The medieval Arthurian romances
  • Medieval European charters and records
  • 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.