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 [ 2 syll. (t)hel-ma, th-e-lma ] The girl name Thelma is pronounced as THEHLMah KEY. 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' (wish, will). The name was in recent times popularized by the US film Thelma and Louise (1991). The Hebrew and Hawaiian Kama, the Portuguese and Spanish Telma, and the English Thelmalina are variant forms of the name. Another variant of Thelma is the English short form Thel. See also the related form, the German, Arabic, Slavic, English, Italian, and Scandinavian Selma. 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 2008. The name Thelma has been predominantly given to girls, though it has also been used as a boy name in the past century. In 1913, Thelma as a girl name outnumbered its use as a boy name by 130 times. Baby names that sound like Thelma include the German Taline, the Portuguese and Spanish Telma, and the German Talina. KEY: Pronunciation for Thelma: TH as in "theta (TH.EY.T.AH)" ; EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)"   |
