Thoughts on name Ishbel?

[Freya2456]

Couldn’t find much threads on this name. We have Scottish heritage on my mums side. I am quite fond of “belle” names but think Isabel is too common.

Have never known an Ishbel only heard of the name. Be good to get some opinions on it!

I like it, though I used to work with an Ishbel who was forever having to spell out/correct her name

Never in my life have I heard anyone here say pish! In NZ it would definitely be “belle” not “bul” as well. Izzy is the only nickname I have ever heard of for Isabelle. We don’t live in Europe… I feel the majority of people on here are from there from these comments?? I don’t even understand half of them!

It’s really nice. Old Scottish name. I’m surprised by people saying they’d never heard of it or it must be made up.

@Freya2456

Never in my life have I heard anyone here say pish! In NZ it would definitely be “belle” not “bul” as well. Izzy is the only nickname I have ever heard of for Isabelle. We don’t live in Europe… I feel the majority of people on here are from there from these comments?? I don’t even understand half of them!

MN is a mainly UK based membership.

You said you liked the name because you wanted to honour your Scottish heritage and that is why many Scottish posters are replying (with Pish which means piss in our dialect and pointing out that in Scots dialect it's not a "belle" sound, it's "bull" etc and other things you won't understand if the Scottish link isn't current or you don't know anyone with a Scots accent). Izzy doesn't have to be the nickname for Isabelle. It's what you choose and use that usually sticks. It could be Belle, Bels,
Iz, Tiz.
Ishbel could end up being Ishy by your reasoning, or Ish just as much as Belle.

You may get more of the response you are looking for on a NZ based website.

How would you pronounce the name in NZ?

This is a UK-based site with a largely British and Irish usership. NZ vowel sounds are very different from English or Scottish ones. To my ear, the NZ 'ish' would sound like 'eesh', so I'm imagining you'd say 'Eesh-belle'.

Oh and an NZ 'bell' would sound like beal or bill to my ear, so 'Eesh-bill' perhaps?

If you like a 'belle' sound, I don't think you're going to get it with this name. It sounds more like 'bull' to me. I strongly dislike this name.

Hi there, we would say “ish - Belle!” Not eesh at all! And definitely not bull. Yes I have discovered it’s a lot of English people on here now haha!! The comments are so funny! A lot of the slang I have no idea hahhaa

So you'd emphasise the second syllable and turn it into a 'belle' with longer 'L' sound? It wouldn't be pronounced that way in the UK at all. The emphasis would be on the first syllable (whether the second sounds like bel, bul or whatever, depending on accent).

When I say eesh, I mean that's how standard NZ vowels in 'Ish' sound to an English ear. NZ vowel sounds are all quite different from ours. e.g. I recently watched an old episode of Taskmaster (British comedy panel show), featuring NZ comedian Rose Matafeo and there was a section where they talked about garden sheds and teased her for pronouncing it something like 'shid' or 'sheed'.

Is the emphasis on the first or second syllable?

The emphasis is on the first syllable - so ISH-bel (or bil/bul depending on your Scottish accent)

It's not really the same name, or a Scottish name, if you pronounce it incorrectly.

It's ISH-bull. Not Ish-belle.

It's the equivalent of saying "I have Irish roots and want to call my child Niamh pronounced Ny-AM".

Or just, "I want to call my daughter Alice but we say it as Al-eece."

@QuickieNCforthis
You are right no point in picking a name only to pronounce it wrong. Ishbel is a gaelic name so should follow the rules of that language.

How do you pronounce Niamh?

How do you pronounce Niamh?

Neve.

@SirChenjins

The emphasis is on the first syllable - so ISH-bel (or bil/bul depending on your Scottish accent)

Thanks, @SirChenjins. That’s what I assumed, but I’m extrapolating from my memories of Trebizon, and have never met an actual Ishbel.

@Lockdownbear, Niamh is properly ‘NEE-uv’, second syllable is a schwa.

[quote Lockdownbear]@QuickieNCforthis
You are right no point in picking a name only to pronounce it wrong. Ishbel is a gaelic name so should follow the rules of that language.

How do you pronounce Niamh?[/quote]
I'm British Asian so probably incorrectly! I have Irish and Scottish in-laws and a few Niamh's in the extended family and what they say sounds like "Nee-uhv" or "Nee-ahv" depending on their local dialect. The English tend to say "Neev", one syllable rather than two, and it pisses the in laws off. I do try for the two syllables but I guess the point is I wouldn't use a Gaelic name then use the incorrect pronunciation if my accent made it impossible to say it correctly. So I wouldn't call my kid Niamh or Lachlan because I'd naturally say it wrong and bastardise the name and it would feel like appropriation but I would use Noor or Anwar. This is also why my parents picked names for us which worked in both Arabic and British English (think Nadia, Adam, Zarah etc)!

I've literally sat and phonetically rehearsed Siobhan and Eammon over and over as I initally said Shi-vaughn and Ay-mun and really upset the old matriarch of the family . I know how shit it is the other way round when my older relatives introduce themselves as "Nasir" or "Khurshid" and people repeatedly get it wrong and don't really care. So maybe this is just a sore point for me.

Although...Ishbel is also Hebrew/Jewish apparently. So maybe there is an alternative pronunciation. But it wouldn't be honouring a Scottish heritage in that case.

Ishbel is a major character in an international bestselling novel by Peter May and clearly has other pop-culture references from this thread. It's fine not to like it, but those suggesting it should only be used in Scotland as it's too confusing/Scottish/unknown/Hebrew/whatever should probably consider that their perspective says more about them than the name.

It's a perfectly nice name OP, unusual but not weird, easy to say and spell.

@KidneyBeans

Ishbel is a major character in an international bestselling novel by Peter May and clearly has other pop-culture references from this thread. It's fine not to like it, but those suggesting it should only be used in Scotland as it's too confusing/Scottish/unknown/Hebrew/whatever should probably consider that their perspective says more about them than the name.

It's a perfectly nice name OP, unusual but not weird, easy to say and spell.

I'm not saying it should only be used in Scotland or Israel.

I'm saying "Ish-Belle" isn't the correct pronunciation. It's ISH-bull. It's a bit off to pick a name to honour a Scottish heritage and then say it completely differently to the usual way of saying it. The OP has repeatedly said she likes "Belle" names. Great. But Ishbel isn't a "Belle" name, the way Isabelle or Annabel might be and the stress on the syllables doesn't fall equally on both as it would with "ish-belle". It has a strong first syllable. We don't say tay-bell for table or fay-bell for fable. We say TAY-bull and FAY-bull.

I'm not saying it should only be used in Scotland or Israel.

Then why are you quoting my post and responding to it? It's clearly not aimed at you and I haven't questioned your pronunciation comment.
Odd.

@KidneyBeans

I'm not saying it should only be used in Scotland or Israel.

Then why are you quoting my post and responding to it? It's clearly not aimed at you and I haven't questioned your pronunciation comment.
Odd.

Apologies then. Your post seemed aimed at me given that mine was the post directly before yours mentioning Scottish/Hebrew etc. I took your post the wrong way, in that case.

Thanks this is a great reply :)

We named (our now adolescent) daughter Ishbel. We pronounce it "Ish' belI" which is how we've heard it said in Scotland. It's a lovely sounding name and quite uncommon. My wife is Scottish by birth (though she grew up mostly in England) and IMHO I think you'd want to have that sort of bona fide connection before choosing this name because based on personal experience, people will ask "Why?" How many girls named Ishbel do I know? Three. Two in Scotland and one the daughter of a Scottish expat that lives in our neighborhood here in Southern California. We have encountered ever single mispronunciation described by others here (e.g., Ishmael) along with Ishabel, which I didn't see mentioned. We're all use to the mistakes and we are happy to correct them. It's great because we can immediately identify strangers pretending to know her the instant they butcher her name. Even better, once people learn out to say it, people remember her. Our daughter is athletic and plays team sports; she's often called "Ish" or given the nickname "Fish" by her teammates, which she genuinely likes. We had a good idea of what we were getting into when we chose this name and we have no regrets at all.

You are correct that the stress is on the first syllable. However, while you may have heard the second syllable pronounced "bull," we never have. In Scotland we have only heard it pronounced "bell" (notably, by people named Ishbel) and that is how we say it. It is our daughter's name.

Other bel options:
Mirabel / Mirabelle
Belinda
Annabel
Arabella

I think these are pretty