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Belle (given name)

female given name

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ2277072 ↗
Source-derived summary

Belle is a feminine given name meaning "beautiful". It may also be a short form (hypocorism) of Isabella, Isabel or variations thereof.

People

Belle Kendrick Abbott (1842–1893), American author

Belle Baker (1893–1957), American singer and actress

Belle Baranceanu (1902–1988), American artist

Belle Barth (1911–1971), Jewish-American entertainer

Belle Benchley (1882–1972), American director of the San Diego Zoo from 1927 to 1953

Belle Bennett (1891–1932), American stage and screen actress

Belle Boyd (1843–1900), Confederate spy during the American Civil War

Belle Brezing (1860–1940), American brothel owner, believed to be the model for Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind

Belle Chrystall (1910–2003), British actress

Belle Chuo (born 1986), Taiwanese actress

Belle Cole (1845–1905), American singer

Belle Cooledge (1884–1955), American politician, first female mayor of Sacramento, California

Belle Delphine (born 1999), South African internet celebrity

Belle Gibson (born 1991) Australian convicted scammer

Belle Gunness (1859–1908), Norwegian-American female serial killer

Belle R. Harrison (1856–1940), American author

Belle Kinney Scholz (1890–1959), Euro-American sculptor

Belle Goshorn MacCorkle (1841–1923), American former First Lady of West Virginia

Belle Mariano (born 2002), Filipina actress, model and singer

Belle Mitchell (1889–1979), American film actress

Belle Montrose (1886–1963), Irish-American actress and vaudeville performer born Isabelle Donohue

Belle Moore (1894–1975), Scottish freestyle swimmer

Belle Moskowitz (1877–1933), political advisor to New York Governor and 1928 presidential candidate Al Smith

Belle Perez, stage name of Maribel Pérez (born 1976), Flemish musician and songwriter

Belle L. Pettigrew (1839–1912), American educator, missionary

Belle Reynolds (1840–1937), American heroine of the American Civil War

Belle Hunt Shortridge (1858–1893), American author

Belle Skinner (1866–1928), American businesswoman

Belle Starr (1848–1889), American outlaw born Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr

Belle Story (c.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Belle (given name)” as female given name. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1842, 1893, 1957, 1902—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Belle, given and name can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as female given name. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2277072. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1842, 1893, 1957 and 1902.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Belle (given name)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Belle (given name) primary sources, Belle (given name) archive and Belle research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Belle (given name)”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Belle (given name)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.