Whoa, I just learned that the Welsh form of Isolde is Esyllt!
That is lovely; I wish I had known it before I started writing the episodes of the Helen story in which Isolde appears (none of which have been published, unless I'm mistaken).
I do believe that a young musician named Esyllt, in modern Britain, would probably have changed it to Isolde just for the sake of ease of pronunciation, and to minimize the exotic nature of the name. Isolde does not come across to me as--or at least, I did not conceive the character to be--someone who considered that how different and unique she was, as her main characteristic. She knew she was extremely good at what she did: play several instruments; and the other things that made her different: her clothes, her hair, her voice, etc, were just incidental.
Kay
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