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I believe everything has been said here about "Isabeau". The only thing I can add is that this has definitely not been a popular name in the past decades in the French speaking world. Two main reasons for this:
- In French "beau" is masculine and that makes this female name sound a bit odd compared to Isabelle
- Isabeau somehow survived in the countryside a long time after the original Isabeau disapeared and it became a "country folk" girl name. Illiterate peasants, suspected of not being able to tell the difference between masculine "beau" and feminine "belle", used it to name baby girls. That "hillbilly" reputation stuck to the name and prevented it to become popular again.

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This, however, could change, for "Isabeau" lately reappeared among other very "classic" names in France and is now used again, almost 600 years after Isabeau de Bavière's death. Between 15 and 20 baby girls have been named Isabeau each year since 1999 in France, compared to 0 the previous decades (with the exception of a handful of Isabeau in the sixties).

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One bit of trivia: Michelle Pfeiffer as LadyHawk bore that name in the movie of the same name.

Isabeau is still in use in South Africa, mostly in Afrikaans-speaking families. There is quite a strong tradition of using French or approximately French names - we had some Huguenot settlers back in the 17th century. We also use Isabella, Isabel etc.

Isabeau is feminine, an older French variant of Isabel/Isabelle. Belle and Beau are incidental, not really the connection, it's a diminutive form, -eau being a standard diminutive formation of the time.

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Don't know if they count as 'historical' but Isabeau is a family name of my father's. Marie Esabeau (a variant spelling, you can see the connections between Isabel and Elisabeth very neatly there I think) Colin b. 1692, granddaughter of Esabeau Carrel b. 1640 or so, both of Neuchatel, Switzerland. And there's Isabeau de Bavière (1300's) and the libretto Isabeau by Mascagni.

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Devon

Some sources report an Anglicisation of her name as being ELIZABETH, but this is following the etymology all the way back to ISABELLE's origins. I have seen Isabelle given more often than Elizabeth.

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The Bavarians were (as far as i can tell) German-speaking, although back in 1370 when Isabeau was born, i suspect that the courts were more fluent in French. So we don't know if her given name was Isabeau, or if that is the Gallicisation of her given Germanic name, which could have been either one of the more obviously Elizabeth derived names (ELISA, ELISABETH, LISBETH) or one of the more Isabelle resembling (LIESL, ELSE, etc). I'm sure its been recorded somewhere but so far i haven't been able to lay my own eyes upon it (or a mention thereof).

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[OT OT OT OT]

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So, my learned friends, since we are on the subject: i have been dying to get my hands on a more detailed biography or history of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria than the brief treatment given them towards the end of "A Distant Mirror" (Barbara Tuchman). Can anyone recommend to me a book that details Charles VI reign and the activities of Isabeau during this time?? Even if it covers other kingdoms besides France, or time periods bookending their reign. The only 2-3 books i have found so far are in French, and sadly i never studied French. They also seem to be theses and not print books.

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Thanks so much!

The -eau is an Old French diminutive suffix (like -el/-elle) and neither was masculine nor feminine. The fact that it follows the letter 'b' and forms a French word is mere coincidence.

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King Charles VI of France's wife was Isabeau de Bavière (Isabeau of Bavaria) (1371-24 Sep 1435). She was also known as Isabelle. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI_of_France and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:France-3rdValois.png (lists her as Isabelle).

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I believe Isabeau's an Old French form of Isabel, but I'm not 100% percent certain (OK, I'm around 80% certain ;-)).

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Miranda