Wilma

Where Wilma comes from

The dictionaries list Wilma as a given name — a female given name from the Germanic languages, a contraction of Wilhelmina — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Germanic
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #836 among girls — 5 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1925
    Peak, #62
    4,175 babies named Wilma — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1940
    Wilma Rudolph born
    American athlete
  4. 1945
    Wilma Mankiller born
    Chief of the Cherokee Nation
  5. 1945
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #128.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from the Germanic languages, a contraction of Wilhelmina.
Namesakes
  • Wilma Rudolph · American athlete, 1940–1994
  • Wilma Mankiller · Chief of the Cherokee Nation, 1945–2010
  • Wilma Heltelä · Finnish pole vaulter, born 1998
  • Wilma Neruda · Moravian violinist, 1840–1911
  • Wilma Stockenström · South African writer, born 1933

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.