Belle is the French word for "beautiful" and also a short form of Isabelle and Annabelle. For American children it is the bookish heroine of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and the phrase "belle of the ball" keeps its charm in English. In the United States Belle rose from number 1050 in 2015 into the top 1000 in 2016, peaked at number 806 in 2017 and now hovers just outside, at number 1013 in 2025.