Elizabeth

English

Alternative forms

• Elisabeth

Etymology

From Middle English Elizabeth, from the Ancient Greek Ἐλισάβετ (Elisábet), a transliteration of the Old Testament Biblical Hebrew אלישבע (Elisheva, “my God is an oath”). See El and שבועה. Doublet of Elisheba.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɪzəbəθ/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Proper noun

Elizabeth (countable and uncountable, plural Elizabeths)

1. A female given name from Hebrew, popular since the 16th century.
   • 1595, Edmund Spenser, Amoretti, section LXXIV:

     Most happy letters! framed by skilful trade, / With which that happy name was first designed, - - - / Ye three Elizabeths! for ever live, / That three such graces did unto me give.

   • 1988 Barbara Vine ( =Ruth Rendell ), The House of Stairs, p.21:

     "Because if you say it over and over to yourself, darling, it really is a quite strange-sounding name, isn't it? It's just as strange as any other from the Old Testament, Mehetabel or Hepsibah or Shulamith, and any of them might have got to be as fashionable as Elizabeth if a queen had been called by them.

   • 1993, Phillip Margolin, Gone But Not Forgotten, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 25:

     No one ever called Elizabeth Tannenbaum stunning, but most men found her attractive. Hardly anyone called her Elizabeth, either. An "Elizabeth" was regal, cool, an eyecatching beauty. A "Betsy" was pleasant to look at, a tiny bit overweight, capable, but still fun to be with.

2. A surname originating as a matronymic.
3. A suburb of Adelaide, Australia; named for Elizabeth II.
4. A locale in the United States.
   1. An unincorporated community in Arkansas.
   2. A town in Colorado; named for a family member of John Evans, 2nd Governor of the Territory of Colorado.
   3. An unincorporated community in Georgia; named for Elizabeth Brown, daughter of Georgia senator Joseph E. Brown.
   4. A village in Illinois; said to be named for three early settlers all named Elizabeth.
   5. A town in Indiana; named for Elizabeth Lemmon Zenor, daughter-in-law of early landowner Jacob Zenor.
   6. A village in Allen Parish, Louisiana.
   7. A city in Minnesota; named for early settler Elizabeth Niggler.
   8. A city, the county seat of Union County, New Jersey; named for Elizabeth de Carteret, wife of George Carteret, one of two original Lords Proprietor of the Colony New Jersey.
   9. A borough in Pennsylvania; named for early settler Elizabeth Mackay Bayard.
   10. A town, the county seat of Wirt County, West Virginia; named for early settler Elizabeth Woodyard Beauchamp.

Derived terms

• EIIR
• Elizabethan
• Elizabeth City
• Elizabethian
• Elizabethton
• Elizabethtown
• ER
• Port Elizabeth

 

Related terms

• Elizabethan

variations and nicknames

• Bess
• Bessie
• Bessy
• Bet
• Beth
• Betsy
• Bettie
• Betty
• Biz
• Buffy
• Elisabet
• Elisabeth
• Elise
• Eliza
• Ellie
• Elsa
• Elsie
• Elspeth
• Isabel
• Isabella
• Isabelle
• Izzy
• Libby
• Lilly
• Lily
• Lisa
• Lise
• Lisetta
• Lisette
• Liz
• Liza
• Lizardbreath
• Lisbeth
• Lizbeth
• Lizzie
• Lizzy
• Tetty
• Yelizaveta

Translations

female given name

• Albanian: Izabetë f
• Arabic: إِلِيزَابِيث (ʔilīzābīṯ), إِلِيصَابَات f (ʔilīṣābāt)
• Armenian: Եղիսաբեթ (Eġisabetʻ)
• Basque: Elixabete (eu)
• Belarusian: Лізаве́та (Lizavjéta)
• Bengali: এলিজাবেথ (elijabeth)
• Breton: Elesbed (br)
• Bulgarian: Елисавета f (Elisaveta)
• Catalan: Elisabet (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 伊利沙伯 (ji¹ lei⁶ saa¹ baak³)

  Mandarin: 伊麗莎白／伊丽莎白 (zh) (Yīlìshābái)

• Czech: Alžběta (cs) f
• Danish: Elisabeth
• Dutch: Elisabeth (nl) f, Elizabeth (nl) f
• Esperanto: Elizabeto
• Estonian: Liis
• Farefare: Elizabɛtɩ, A'elizabɛtɩ
• Faroese: Elisabet f, Lísbita f
• Finnish: Liisa (fi), Elisabet (fi)
• French: Élisabeth (fr) f
• Galician: Sabela (gl) f
• German: Elisabeth (de) f
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌹𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌹𐌸 f (aileisabaiþ)
• Greek: Ελισάβετ (el) f (Elisávet), Ισαβέλλα (el) f (Isavélla)

  Ancient: Ἐλισάβετ f (Elisábet)

• Hawaiian: ʻElikapeka
• Hebrew: אלישבע \ אֱלִישֶׁבַע f (elishéva)
• Hungarian: Erzsébet (hu)
• Icelandic: Elísabet (is) f
• Indonesian: Elisabet
• Irish: Eilís, Eibhlís, Éilis, Isibéal
• Italian: Elisabetta (it) f
• Japanese: エリザベス (Erizabesu)
• Korean: 엘리자베스 (Ellijabeseu)
• Latin: Isabella f, Elisabeth f
• Latvian: Elizabete f
• Lithuanian: Elžbieta
• Macedonian: Елизабе́та f (Elizabéta), Елисаве́та f (Elisavéta)
• Maltese: Eliżabetta
• Manx: Ealisaid
• Maori: Irihāpeti
• Middle English: Elizabeth
• Norwegian: Elisabeth (no)
• Ojibwe: Enizaabet
• Old English: Elisabeþ f
• Polish: Elżbieta (pl) f
• Portuguese: Elisabete f, Isabel (pt) f
• Romanian: Elisabeta f
• Russian: Елизаве́та (ru) f (Jelizavéta) (cognate), Эли́забет (ru) f (Elízabet) (transliteration)
• Scottish Gaelic: Ealasaid f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Јелисавета

  Roman: Jelisaveta

• Slovak: Alžbeta f
• Spanish: Isabel (es) f
• Swedish: Elisabet (sv) c, Elisabeth (sv) c
• Tamil: எலிசபெத் (elicapet)
• Telugu: ఎలిజబెత్ (elijabet)
• Ukrainian: , Елі́забет f (Elízabet), Єлизаве́та f (Jelyzavéta), Єлисаве́та (uk) f (Jelysavéta), Елізабе́т f (Elizabét) (French name)

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Elizabeth is the 38439^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 576 individuals. Elizabeth is most common among White (60.94%) and Hispanic/Latino (25.17%) individuals.

See also

• Famous Elizabeths on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Elizabeth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Elizabeth”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 1, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 521.

Cebuano

Etymology

From English Elizabeth, from the Ancient Greek Ἐλισάβετ (Elisábet), a transliteration of the Old Testament Biblical Hebrew אלישבע (Elisheva, “my God is an oath”).

Proper noun

Elizabeth

1. a female given name from English [in turn from Hebrew]

Middle English

Proper noun

Elizabeth

1. The mother of John the Baptist
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[1], published c. 1410, Luke 1:5, page 27r, column 1, lines 1–4; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     IN þe daies of eroude kyng of iudee · ẏ was a preſt ſacharie bi name : of þe ſorte of abia and his wijf was of þe douȝtris of aaron : ⁊ hir name was eliȝabeth /

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. Elisheba, the wife of Aaron.
   • 1380s Wycliffe Bible: Exodus 6:23:

     Sotheli Aaron took a wijf, Elizabeth,the douytir of Amynadab, the sistr of Naason.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: Elizabeth

Spanish

Alternative forms

• Isabel (given name)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /eliθaˈbed/ [e.li.θaˈβ̞eð̞]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /elisaˈbed/ [e.li.saˈβ̞eð̞]
• Rhymes: -ed
• Syllabification: E‧li‧za‧beth

Proper noun

Elizabeth f

1. a female given name

Elizabeth