Isa (name)

Isa (Jesus) depicted in a Persian miniature
Pronunciation	Arabic: [ʕiː.saː] Albanian: [ɪˈsɑ]
Gender	Male
Language(s)	Arabic
Meaning	Jesus
See also	Eisa, Issa, Esa, Essa

Isa is a unisex given name originating from a variety of sources.

The name is most commonly derived from the Arabic عيسى ‘Isa, an Arabic translation of Jesus, itself having a Hebrew origin. However, it is not the only translation; it is most commonly associated with Jesus as depicted in Islam, and thus, commonly used by Muslims. Meanwhile, Arabic-speaking Christians would use يسوع Yasū‘, a more phonetic translation of Jesus. The origin of the Quranic Isa is complex and is detailed below. In this context, Isa is taken to be a masculine name.

Isa can also be used as a shortened form of Isabel and its derivatives, all of them deriving from the Hebrew name Elisheba. In this case, the name is feminine.

The English form of the name "Jesus" is derived from the Latin Iēsus, which in turn comes from the Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs). The Greek is a Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Yēšua (ישוע), which is in turn a shortened form of Hebrew Y^ehōšua (יהושע) or "Joshua" in English. Aramaic (Classical Syriac) and East Syriac, which are ancestral to West Syriac, render the pronunciation of the same letters as ܝܫܘܥ ishoʕ (išoʕ) /iʃoʕ/. The Aramaic Bible (c. 200 AD) or the Peshitta preserve this same spelling. The Encyclopedia of the Qur'an by Brill Publishers quotes scholarship that notes that the Greek name Iesous, Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs), also is known to have represented many different Biblical Hebrew names (which causes issues when seeking to find what Jesus' original Hebrew name would have been from the Greek) "Josephus used the Greek name lesous to denote three people mentioned in the Bible whose Hebrew names were not Yeshua', Y'hoshua' or Y'hoshua'. They were Saul's son Yishwi (Anglicized as 'Ishvi' in the RSV of I Samuel 14:49), the Levhe AbTshua' (mentioned in I Chronicles 6:4, etc.) and Yishwah the son of Asher (Anglicized as 'Ishva' in the RSV of Genesis 46:17). ... Josephus furnishes important evidence for the wide variety of Hebrew names represented in Greek by Iesous"

Also, the classical theologians Clement of Alexandria and Cyril of Jerusalem both stated that the Greek name Iesous was allegedly Jesus' original name itself and that the name was not a transliteration of a Hebrew form.