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Original poster

Ilsa/Ilse

32 replies

ladycarlotta · 22/07/2018 20:36

DP suggested the name Ilsa the other day, like Ingrid Bergman's character in Casablanca, and I rather like it. However, I keep mis-spelling it Isla! Given that's the name of the moment rn, will poor Ilsa forever be mistaken for an Isla?

I wondered about using the alternate spelling Ilse, but I don't know if that's just too 'foreign'.

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Sloanriley · 22/07/2018 20:44

I like it, but I would use the Ilse spelling.

AnneOfCleavage · 22/07/2018 20:46

Ilsa is a lovely name and I have only ever met one before - she was European and about 75 - and I thought what a lovely unusual name. It's not that different to Elsa which people know so it's just an I instead if an E. You may get some miss spellings in the beginning but correcting immediately will sort that out. Good luck 😉

AnneOfCleavage · 22/07/2018 20:48

Meant to say that the Ilse spelling may make the pronunciation difficult as they may pronounce it as a one syllable name instead of two.

MorrisDancingViv · 22/07/2018 20:51

I think it's a lovely name but Isla is just so popular atm that I think at first glance that people will call her Isla if they see it written down before she introduces herself

MikeUniformMike · 23/07/2018 18:42

I like it and would go for the Ilse spelling or put up with people thinkingit's Isla.

GreatDuckCookery6211 · 23/07/2018 19:31

How is it pronounced?

MikeUniformMike · 23/07/2018 19:34

Ill-suh

GreatDuckCookery6211 · 23/07/2018 19:55

Ha! I was just saying it to myself then Grin trying to work out how you would say it.

It looks a bit strange written down to me.

MikeUniformMike · 23/07/2018 19:57

I like Inge but I suspect that schoolkids would have too much fun with it.

Original poster
ladycarlotta · 23/07/2018 20:55

Phew, I was braced for a chorus of I HATE IT! Thanks guys for your replies. I agree it looks a bit too much like Isla - also I keep even accidentally typing it that way - but I will keep turning it over in my mind. I don't like that it's technically just a nn for Elizabeth - I don't love 'pet' names as proper names - but in English it's so much of a jump I don't think anyone would pick up on it.

OP posts:
daisypond · 23/07/2018 21:17

I like it. I think Ilsa is fine. It doesn't look like Isla to me! Or is Ilse the more traditional spelling?

WellySocksBox · 23/07/2018 21:53

I have a Great Aunt Ilse who was the most incredible girl. In the 1930s she forced her elderly parents to leave Vienna just before it was too late. At the age of 16 she led them into Italy where she learned Italian and got a job. One day she was walking home and a truck load of German soldiers asked her if she wanted a lift. She brazened it out and spoke to them in Italian. If they'd discovered that she was a ) Austrian b) Jewish then that would have been the end of her. But no. She then took her parents to Switzerland when Italy became too dangerous and they found sanctuary in Portugal where she started her family. She also looked like a Hollywood starlet and at the age of 70 didn't have a line on her face.

All the best people are called Ilse Wink

AnElderlyLadyOfMediumHeight · 23/07/2018 22:20

Go with Ilse. You'll need to tell people about the pronunciation, but they'll get used to it.

This is one name German old lady chic seems to have left out, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it (it's not my personal cup of tea, but then it doesn't need to be :) )

KitchenDancefloor · 23/07/2018 22:26

I don't see Ilsa as Isla - I see it as Lisa but with fat-fingered capitalisation.

Ilse would remove that problem.

GreatDuckCookery6211 · 23/07/2018 23:00

It doesn't look right.

MollyHuaCha · 23/07/2018 23:18

I like it a lot.

I used to know an Ilsa. She used to get annoyed by the number of people who thought her name should be pronounced Elsa.

I still like it a lot!

TatianaLarina · 23/07/2018 23:30

Ilse.

IsTheRainEverComingBack · 23/07/2018 23:35

Ilse is lovely but spell it Ilse not Ilsa, which is just wrong and not how it should be spelt.

Raines100 · 24/07/2018 07:08

I've only seen Ilse before, and it was pronounced with a z sound, not an s.

sonnyboo · 24/07/2018 08:07

I'm not sure it works so well in English. Definitely a German name pronounced Il-se.

MikeUniformMike · 24/07/2018 11:42

You're right Raines. It is Ill-zuh.

TatianaLarina · 24/07/2018 11:53

German is is not as hard as the English z.

MikeUniformMike · 24/07/2018 12:45

No. The English s has a few different sounds.
The S in sarah to me sound different to the s in Isabel or the ss in Clarissa.
A friend called Sabine says that it is nearer Zabina than Sabeen

midsomermurderess · 24/07/2018 13:04

What about Elke?

TatianaLarina · 24/07/2018 13:23

I repeat the German s is not as hard as the English z.

German Sabine is not as soft as ss but nor is it quite as hard as the English z. I’d say it’s half way between s and z.

Ilse is a dim of Elizabeth - and like many of its other dims use s or z interchangably - Lisa/Liza, Elissa/Eliza, Elsie etc.

The name Ilse is used in languages other than German with a softer s.