The forms
Isabella and
Anabella are Italianizations of names ending in
-bel (the Spanish
Isabel and the English
Annabel) by analogy with the Italian
bella, "beautiful" (fem.).
In fact, something similar happened in French, where
Isabel was transformed into
Isabelle, because
-bel was too symilar to the word
bel, "beautiful" (masc.), inappropiate for a feminine name, and replaced by
belle, "beautiful" (fem.).
The Spanish
Anabel has nothing to do with the English
Annabel or the Italian
Annabella, because it comes from
Ana Isabel. Since it is very similar to those names, some people uses it as Spanish equivalent of them, but this is not the etymology of the name.
Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.comThis message was edited 4/16/2009, 2:01 AM