Belle
August 12, 2014 § 1 Comment
ORIGIN:
Like “Bella“, a diminutive of “Belinda”, “Beulah”, etc., or names ending in “-ella” (such as “Isabella”, “Annabella”, “Arabella“, etc.), or names ending in “-belle” (such as “Maybelle”, “Dorabelle”, etc.) Possibly from French, meaning “beautiful”.
VARIATIONS and NICKNAMES:
Arabel, Arabella, Arabelle, Amabel, Amabella, Amabelle, Anabel, Anabella, Anabelle, Annabel, Annabella, Annabelle, Bell, Belle, Belina, Belinda, Belinha, Beulah, Elizabeth, Isabel, Isabella, Isabelle, Izabel, Izabella, Izabelle, Sabella, Sabelle, Zabel, Zabella, Zabelle, etc.
REFERENCES IN LITERATURE:
– Belle Archie (née White), Dr. Archie’s unpleasant wife, “one of those people who are stingy without motive or reason”, in The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (written in 1915 and set in the 1890s).
– Belle Jeffreys, friend of the Gray girls and Berry Joy, in A Little Country Girl (1885), by Susan Coolidge.
The Art of Literary Nomenclature 
[…] Like “Belle“, a diminutive of “Belinda”, “Beulah”, “Isabella”, […]
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