as a First Name
First used by the novelist Marie Corelli for the heroine of her novel Thelma (1887). She was supposed to be Norwegian, but it is not a traditional Scandinavian name. Greek thelēma (neuter) means ‘wish’ or ‘(act of) will’, and the name could perhaps be interpreted as a contracted form of this.
| 445th in the U.S. for 2011 |
Nicknames & variations
Quick facts
- Tens of Thousands
- of people in the U.S have this name
- 107,001
- to be exact (as of February 2011)
- 198,879
- if you include dead people (since the government started keeping track)
- West Virginia
- has the most people named Thelma per capita
- 1910
- marked the height of its popularity
99.97%
0.03%
87%
55+
55+
12%
30-54
30-54
0.87%
13-29
13-29
0.34%
0-12
0-12
Top state populations
U.S. Distribution Map
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