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I don't know the origin (so why are you responding? says Siri)-I came accross it in the book, "What's Bred in the Bone", by Robertson Davies.Ismay, was the spelling.
The book was written in the 1980's, but the part including this character was set in the 1930's, the character then being about age 20, thus, born in about 1910.
Don't know if you're familiar with the writer..he was *very* careful with names and research in general. So, I'd guess that name was at least current at the time (1910) if not necessarily popular.