Izabela
A Hebrew name meaning "god is my oath". Around 159,000 Polish women carry it, so it stays familiar, but it's fading: fewer girls got it last year than in years past.
Izabela Pronunciation
Izabela is pronounced ee-zah-BE-lah (/izaˈbɛla/).
What Izabela means
Where Izabela comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Izabela comes from Hebrew, from the same root as Elisheva, the source that also gave Europe the name Elizabeth. The old sense is "God is my oath," in Polish "bóg moją przysięgą." Isabel is the medieval variant that traveled through Provence and Spain, and from that line Izabela and Izabella settled into Polish. Friends shorten it to Iza. Some reach for Bela.
One Izabela anchors the name in Polish memory. Izabela Czartoryska gathered paintings and relics at Puławy and opened the Temple of the Sibyl in 1801, often counted the first Polish museum. Her collecting saved objects that a partitioned country could not otherwise keep.
On a school register the name reads plainly, Izabela before the surname, with Iza the version called across the corridor. The oath in it is old. Whatever a bearer makes of it, the meaning underneath stays "God is my oath."
When Izabela celebrates name day
Izabela appears 7 times in the Polish name day calendar, 3 of them as a main name, the first on 23 February.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Izabela
1 in 142 women in Poland is named Izabela. 159,303 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #92 among female names.
Izabela's popularity over time
319 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #141 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #92 name among living women, even as it slips to #141 among newborns.
Where parents choose Izabela
Izabela is most popular in Podlaskie, 102% above the national average (234 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+60%) and Subcarpathian (+58%). It is least common in Silesian and West Pomeranian, 45% and 42% below average respectively.
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Podlaskie
+102%1 in 281 babies
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Lesser Poland
+60%1 in 355 babies
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Subcarpathian
+58%1 in 359 babies
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Silesian
−45%1 in 1,034 babies
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West Pomeranian
−42%1 in 970 babies
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Opole
−36%1 in 886 babies
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Podlaskie+102% 234 born1 in 281 babies+102%
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Lesser Poland+60% 640 born1 in 355 babies+60%
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Subcarpathian+58% 336 born1 in 359 babies+58%
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Lublin+18% 214 born1 in 480 babies+18%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+15% 221 born1 in 495 babies+15%
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Masovian+2% 637 born1 in 556 babies+2%
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Pomeranian−4% 250 born1 in 589 babies−4%
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Holy Cross−9% 89 born1 in 623 babies−9%
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Warmian-Masurian−11% 112 born1 in 641 babies−11%
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Lower Silesian−25% 208 born1 in 755 babies−25%
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Greater Poland−26% 282 born1 in 763 babies−26%
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Lubusz−27% 64 born1 in 776 babies−27%
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Łódź−28% 161 born1 in 787 babies−28%
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Opole−36% 52 born1 in 886 babies−36%
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West Pomeranian−42% 87 born1 in 970 babies−42%
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Silesian−45% 220 born1 in 1,034 babies−45%
Izabela as a middle name
Izabela is a first name for 159,303 women in Poland and a middle name for another 79,799, a 67/33 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 37th, between Bożena (80,221) and Natalia (79,190).
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#35 Agata81,382
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#36 Bożena80,221
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#37 Izabela79,799
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#38 Natalia79,190
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#39 Marianna77,344