Zelma

Where Zelma comes from

The dictionaries list Zelma as a given name — a female given name from Arabic, variant of Selma — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Arabic
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #375 among girls — 19 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1902
    Peak, #216
    189 babies named Zelma — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1957
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,202.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Arabic, variant of Selma.
Namesakes

No widely known Zelma turns up in the encyclopedias yet — the name is still all theirs to make famous.

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.