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ArchivesFleshing out the background of the name "Ivelisse"
There are many posters online that claim that the name Ivelisse has been in use since the 1960s. I'm here to say that there are instances of the name long before that.
I come from Puerto Rico, and I'm a third-generation Ivelisse: my mother (b. 1947) and grandmother (b. 1926) also bear the name.
The family lore is that my grandmother's spinster aunt found the name in a French novel she was reading. While it's within the realm of possibility that the name in that novel was spelled "Yvelise," in our family's case the inspiration wasn't the oft-cited 1950s story "Yvelise devant l'amour."
Some in my family have claimed that my grandmother was the first Ivelisse in Puerto Rico. I've never confirmed that—just offering it up as a possible clue.
I'd love to find out more about the name Ivelisse (or Yvelise) during the 1920s.
I come from Puerto Rico, and I'm a third-generation Ivelisse: my mother (b. 1947) and grandmother (b. 1926) also bear the name.
The family lore is that my grandmother's spinster aunt found the name in a French novel she was reading. While it's within the realm of possibility that the name in that novel was spelled "Yvelise," in our family's case the inspiration wasn't the oft-cited 1950s story "Yvelise devant l'amour."
Some in my family have claimed that my grandmother was the first Ivelisse in Puerto Rico. I've never confirmed that—just offering it up as a possible clue.
I'd love to find out more about the name Ivelisse (or Yvelise) during the 1920s.
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Replies
Well, it actually didn't take long to find the novel that your great-great aunt must have been reading, Yvelise by Guido da Verona.
http://books.google.com/books/about/Yvelise.html?id=7MIunAEACAAJ
Guido da Verona was an Italian author. In the WorldCat international library catalog I have found translations of the novel into Spanish and Portuguese, but it doesn't seem to have ever been translated into either English or French. I've been able to use Google Translate to find a short description of the novel which says it is in the form of a confessional letter written by a married man named Enzo, who falls in love with an eighteen year old woman named Yvelise and then must choose between her and his sickly wife Martha. I would suspect that either the novel is set in France, or Yvelise in the novel is said to be from France, but I can't so far get confirmation of that.
Probably Da Verona made up the name to sound exotic and "French" to Italian readers in 1923. Perhaps he thought he was creating a feminine form of Yves by blending it with Elise?
http://books.google.com/books/about/Yvelise.html?id=7MIunAEACAAJ
Guido da Verona was an Italian author. In the WorldCat international library catalog I have found translations of the novel into Spanish and Portuguese, but it doesn't seem to have ever been translated into either English or French. I've been able to use Google Translate to find a short description of the novel which says it is in the form of a confessional letter written by a married man named Enzo, who falls in love with an eighteen year old woman named Yvelise and then must choose between her and his sickly wife Martha. I would suspect that either the novel is set in France, or Yvelise in the novel is said to be from France, but I can't so far get confirmation of that.
Probably Da Verona made up the name to sound exotic and "French" to Italian readers in 1923. Perhaps he thought he was creating a feminine form of Yves by blending it with Elise?
This message was edited 7/14/2014, 9:56 AM
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Thanks so much for this lead! It does appear that a Spanish translation of Yvelise was published in 1923—and that it was fairly popular, given that a second (or third?) edition followed in 1925—so it's quite plausible that this was the inspiration.
Now to get my hands on this book...
Now to get my hands on this book...
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In France (INSEE's birth records start in 1900) there are no listings for the name with spellings Yvelise, Evelise, Evalise, Evelyse etc before 1951, which is when the story you mention was published, and none for Ivelisse. If it was from an earlier French book, I'd expect to see a few earlier French bearers of the name in some form.
Someone else thinks it might have originally been Corsican:
http://www.onceuponatimebabynames.com/2013/05/ivelisse.html
-interesting theory, but I can't find anything to confirm it.
The 1940 US census as listed here: http://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3Aivelisse~
doesn't seem to have any entries for anyone with the name in Puerto Rico born before 1926, but I don't know how complete or accurate the transcriptions are. That list also has another girl born in 1928 in a different area, which would seem to indicate that someone either read the same book, or there was another source for the name.
Sorry I can't come up with much! - perhaps someone else can do better.
Someone else thinks it might have originally been Corsican:
http://www.onceuponatimebabynames.com/2013/05/ivelisse.html
-interesting theory, but I can't find anything to confirm it.
The 1940 US census as listed here: http://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3Aivelisse~
doesn't seem to have any entries for anyone with the name in Puerto Rico born before 1926, but I don't know how complete or accurate the transcriptions are. That list also has another girl born in 1928 in a different area, which would seem to indicate that someone either read the same book, or there was another source for the name.
Sorry I can't come up with much! - perhaps someone else can do better.
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Thank you—your trouble is much appreciated!
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