Wilma
- Pronunciation
- [Wil-ma]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Resolute Protector. Feminine Variant Of William.
- Origin
- German
About the Name Wilma
Wilma is the feminine form of William, built on the Old Germanic elements wil ("will" or "desire") and helm ("helmet" or "protection") — making it a name that means, in essence, "resolute protector." The feminization draws on the same heroic tradition as the masculine original, but the -a ending softens the sound into something graceful and thoroughly wearable. Wilma belongs to the family of German and English feminine names that were fashionable in the early twentieth century alongside Velma, Thelma, and Alma.
Wilma Rudolph (born 1940) was an American Olympic sprinter whose performance at the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics produced three gold medals — in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 4×100m relay — making her the first American woman ever to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games, according to the bio on record.
Wilma first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1912 and rose to its peak of #62 in 1925, at the crest of the early-twentieth-century vogue for Germanic feminine names. It remained in the top-1000 through 1940, when it ranked #93 with 2,621 births, accumulating 94,707 top-1000 births across nearly three decades of tracked presence. Today the name sits firmly in the vintage category, belonging to the era of its peak rather than being revived in significant numbers. Recorded variants are Velma and Vilma, cognate forms from related linguistic traditions.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Wilma
US Popularity History (1912–1940)
Annual US births named Wilma by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1925 with 4,175 girls named Wilma (girl rank #62 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1940, ranked #93 for girls (2,621 US births). That's 31 places below its 1925 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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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Velma | Protector. | Female | Greek |
Famous People Named Wilma
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Wilma.
- Wilma Rudolph — Runner (1940)
Looking for names like Wilma?
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 Wilma to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Wilma against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).