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Elisabet is a Hebrew name and in Spain, in general, names coming from the Old Testament has not been used until 20th century, then the name and its variants could be not clear with respect to gender for the people. Moreover, in the variant Elisabel, the ending is -EL, a typical ending of masculine Biblical names (Daniel, Ismael, Ezequiel, etc.).
In Catalan, there is an ancient variant Isabet (from Elisabet), made in the same way and for the same reasons.

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Regarding the sources of ancient forms, they are attested in Repertori d'Antropònims Catalans (RAC), by Jordi BOLÒS and Josep MORAN (Repertoris de la Secció Filològica, II. Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Barcelona, 1994). And they are seen too (whith a fantastic philologycal explanation of the evolution and history of Isabel)in Diccionario de nombres propios by Roberto FAURE (Espasa Calpe. Madrid, 2002).

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Same explanation for etymology and history is given in Los nombres de pila españoles by Consuelo GARCÍA GALLARÍN (Ediciones del Prado. Madrid, 1998); Diccionario dos nomes galegos by Xesús FERRO et al. (Ir Indo. Vigo, 1998); and Dictionnaire des prénoms by Chantal TANET and Tristan HORDÉ (Larousse. Paris, 2000).

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Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com

This message was edited 6/21/2005, 11:32 AM