Meaning & Origin
A female given name from the Celtic languages or the Germanic languages.
Isolde is a girl's baby name of Celtic origin, from the Old Welsh Esyllt or Old Irish Ísolt, possibly from the Proto-Celtic meaning 'she who is gazed upon' or from the Germanic Ishild (iron battle) — the tragic heroine of one of medieval Europe's greatest love stories.
With over 327 recorded births, Isolde is the heroine of the legend of Tristan and Isolde — the Irish princess who falls fatally in love with the Cornish knight Tristan through a love potion. Their story, told in medieval romance from Béroul and Thomas of Britain to Gottfried von Strassburg and Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde (1865), is one of Western literature's most enduring explorations of love, loyalty, and fate. A name of extraordinary literary and operatic beauty.