Thelma - Meaning of Thelma

What does Thelma mean?

Pronounce
Thelma

[ 2 syll. (t)hel-ma, th-e-lma ] The baby girl name Thelma is pronounced as -THEHLMaa- †. Thelma is primarily used in English, German, and Hawaiian, and its language of origin is English. The name was coined by the British novelist Marie Corelli (1855-1924) for the Norwegian princess in her novel Thelma (1887); she could have derived the name as a contracted form of the Greek 'thelema' (meaning wish, will). The name was in recent times popularized by the US film Thelma and Louise (1991).

The Hawaiian Kama, the Finnish, Scandinavian, and Spanish Telma, the name Telmah, the name Thellma, the name Thelmah, the name Thelmai, the English Thelmalina, and the name Thelmia are forms of Thelma.

Another form of the name is the English shortening Thel.

See also the related form, the English, German, Arabic, Slavic, Italian, and Scandinavian Selma.

See also the related categories, princess (queen), english, greek, hawaiian, and german.

Thelma is an unusual baby name for girls. Its usage peaked in 1911 with 0.717% of baby girls being named Thelma. Its ranking then was #27. The baby name has since fallen from favor, and is now of irregular use. Among all girl names in its group, Thelma was nevertheless the most popular in 2018. The name Thelma has been predominantly given to baby girls, though it has also been used as a boy name in the past century. In 1913, Thelma as a baby girl name outnumbered its use as a boy name by 130 times.

Baby names that sound like Thelma include Taelyn, Talan, Talene, Talin, Tallin, Tallyn, Talma, Talman, Talon, Talyn, Telma, Telmao, Telyn, Telynn, Telynne, Thelmai, Taleene, Telin, Telinn, and Telinne.

† Pronunciation for Thelma: TH as in "theme (TH.IY.M)" ; EH as in "ebb (EH.B)" ; L as in "lay (L.EY)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)"