Althea - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 3 syll. al-(t)hea, alt-h-ea ] The girl name Althea is pronounced aeLTHIYah ^KEY. Althea is of Old Greek origin and it is used mainly in English. The meaning of Althea is 'wholesome, healing'. Derived from the word althein which has the meaning 'to heal'. Althaia (Old Greek) is an old form of the name. Althaia was the Greek name for the marshmallow plant which was believed to have healing powers. In Greek mythology, Althea was the name of the mother of Meleager the hunter. She was told at her son's birth that he would die only if a certain log of wood remained unburnt; she initially kept it safe but later set it alight in a fit of fury, thereby killing her son. The name was popularized in literature by Richard Lovelace in his 17th century poem 'To Althea, from Prison', as a poetic pseudonym for his beloved. The name was also borne by the US tennis player Althea Gibson (1927-2003).

Variant forms of Althea include Altea (Polish) and Althaea (English).

In addition, Althea is a short form of Alethea (English).

Althea is uncommon as a baby girl name. At the modest height of its usage in 1920, 0.027% of baby girls were named Althea. It was #356 in rank then. The baby name has markedly slipped in popularity since then, and is of only very light use today. Within all girl names in its family, Althea was nevertheless the most popular in 2007.

Baby names that sound like Althea include Althaea (English), Aleida (German and Dutch), Aleta (English), Aletha (English), Aletta (French and Frisian), Alida (Hungarian, Dutch, German, Italian, and English), Alita (Spanish), Altea (Polish), Alwilda (English), Elodie (French), Élodie (French), Alathea (Greek), Alda (German, Italian, and Portuguese), Aleid (Dutch), Aleit (German), Alethea (English), Aletheia (English), Alethia (English), Alette (French and Frisian), Alithea (English), Alithia (English), Eilidh (Scottish), and Elodia (Spanish).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Althea: AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; TH as in "theta (TH.EY.T.AH)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"

A famous person named Althea is Tennis Player Althea Gibson, born 25 August 1927 - 28 September 2003, Silver, South Carolina.

Popularity Trend
for Althea
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Althea
in 2007