On the Likely Significance of the Name Isa

In my view the mysterious name Isa عيسى probably originally had the same significance as Yassa يسى (Jesse--King David’s father). From the Syriac Ishai ܐܝܫܝ. Now if the initial letter of Ishai (olaph--a glottal stop) was pronounced like the Arabic ayin, we can see a reason for the change of letter, and the final letter (yud ‘i’) became alif maqsurah ى.