Thelma
- Pronunciation
- [Thel-ma]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Nursing
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Thelma
Thelma is often cited as deriving from the Greek thelema, meaning "will" or "wish" — though some sources gloss it as "nursing" or "nurturing." The etymology is not firmly settled, and the name's rise appears closely linked to its literary introduction in Marie Corelli's novel Thelma, whose Norwegian title character sparked a wave of English-language adoption. That literary origin places Thelma in the tradition of names whose popularity was essentially created by fiction — a phenomenon visible in several late-Victorian and Edwardian names.
On the US Social Security charts, Thelma first appeared in the top-1000 in 1898 and peaked early, in 1910, at rank #25 — suggesting it moved swiftly from literary novelty to genuine American fashion in the years around the turn of the 20th century. Its total top-1000 births across the tracked run exceed 181,000, a substantial figure reflecting a name that was genuinely widespread in its era. The last year Thelma appears in the top-1000 is 1939, when it ranked #88 with nearly 2,700 births, indicating a gradual rather than sudden exit.
Today Thelma is almost exclusively a name of women born roughly between 1900 and 1940, which gives it an early-20th-century grandmother quality. Its cultural afterlife was refreshed by the film Thelma & Louise, which gave the name a rebellious, adventurous connotation quite different from its Edwardian origins. For parents exploring names from the deep vintage tier, Thelma offers an unusual combination of genuine rarity in current use and a long documented history. The recorded variant is Telma.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Thelma
US Popularity History (1898–1939)
Annual US births named Thelma by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1921 with 7,839 girls named Thelma (girl rank #30 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1939, ranked #88 for girls (2,696 US births). That's 58 places below its 1921 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Thelma Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 1948–1957 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Thelma the strongest states are Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | #77 | 406 |
| 2 | Arkansas | #82 | 234 |
| 3 | Kentucky | #86 | 237 |
| 4 | Mississippi | #86 | 794 |
| 5 | South Carolina | #88 | 318 |
| 6 | West Virginia | #95 | 192 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Virginia | #95 | 192 |
| 2 | South Carolina | #88 | 318 |
| 3 | Mississippi | #86 | 794 |
| 4 | Kentucky | #86 | 237 |
| 5 | Arkansas | #82 | 234 |
| 6 | Virginia | #77 | 406 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 1948–1957. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Thelma in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telma | Variant Of Greek Thelma Will: Wilful. | Female | Spanish |
Looking for names like Thelma?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Thelma to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Thelma against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).