While its most common association is with the religious context, its meaning outside of this is generally linked to divine blessings, salvation, and gifts from God.
[3] [Other Aramaic pronunciations of the same name include yeshuuʕ (ʕ is the symbol for the Voiced Pharyngeal Fricative in the IPA).
Scholars have been puzzled by the use of ʿĪsā in the Qur'an since Christians in Arabia used yasūʿ before and after Islam,[4][5] itself derived from the Syriac form Yəšūʿ and ultimately Hebrew Yēšūaʿ by a phonetic change.
[8] For example, compare Ismā‘īl and Ibrāhīm (Anglicised Ishmael and Abraham), Jālūt and Tālūt (Goliath and Saul), Yājuj and Mājuj (Gog and Magog), and Qābil and Hābil (Cain and Abel).
However, there is no evidence that the Jews have ever used Esau to refer to Jesus, and if Muhammad had unwittingly adopted a pejorative form his many Christian acquaintances would have corrected him.
According to the Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, "Arabic often employs an initial 'ayn in words borrowed from Aramaic or Syriac and the dropping of the final Hebrew 'ayin is evidenced in the form Yisho of the 'koktiirkish' Manichaean fragments from Turfan.
"[3] This is supported by Macúch with an example in classical Mandaic, a variety of Eastern Aramaic (hence closely related to Syriac) used as liturgical language by the Mandaean community of southern Mesopotamia, where the name for Jesus is rendered ʿ-š-u (ࡏࡔࡅ), though the pharyngeal ('ayin) is pronounced like a regular long i ("Īshu").
Scholar Alphonse Mingana writes there may have been a monastery named ʿĪsāniyya in the territory of the Christian Ghassanid Arabs in southern Syria as early as 571 CE.
Enno Littman (1950) states: "Mr. G. Lankaster Harding, Chief Curator of Antiquities Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan, kindly sent me copies of a little more than five hundred Thamudic inscriptions.
Also, the closer correspondence with another name ישעיה [y'sha'yá, "Isaiah" in English] needs explanation or discussion before this inscription can be entertained as an Arabic "Jesus".
[15] Ahmad Al-Jallad has argued that a precedent of the quranic name ʿsy was already used in a Christian Safaitic inscription from the fourth century.
Variations of the name include Ğaysə (Tatar: Гайсә) and Ğaysa (Bashkir: Ғайса[18]); in Russian transcript as Гайса, Айса (Aysa) or Айся (Aisya).