Dictionary

Isa en · PROPN · etymology 1

From Isabel, Isabella and Isabelle.

A diminutive of the female given name Isabel or of its variant forms, sometimes also used as a formal given name.
- It's an awkward name: Isamay, pronounced Is-a-may. Isa is my paternal grandmother's name (shortened from Isabel) and May my maternal grandmother's (it comes, somehow, from Margaret). The amalgamation is, as you see, strictly alphabetical. Life, I feel, would have been much easier if they had chosen Maybel. 2010, Margaret Forster, Isa & May, Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 5:
- Even "Liz" brought little to his memory; though he said: "The name does recall the fact of a sister. But why call her Isa?" "Just as easy as Liz, or any of the lot, Eliza, Elizabeth, Betsy and Bess. Isa, that's, I think, a sort of a city name," Lee said, with a shadow of a smile. 1885, Arthur's Home Magazine, volume 53, page 165:

Transliteration of Arabic عِيسَى (ʕīsā) or anglicized from Turkish İsa, both equivalents of Jesus as a given name.