Thelma
Given to 226,602 babies in the United States, 1880 to 2025. Every figure below is a count of birth registrations, not an estimate.
By register
By decade, every selected register together
Asked and held nothing for this name: Poland (2000–2025). That is not a count of nought — each of those registers was searched and does not carry this spelling. Every one withholds its smallest counts, on its own rule, so a name can be real there and still absent from what they publish.
Narrow these tables
The sum at the top of each table adds counts that were not made on the same rule — the Americans publish a name only where five or more babies were given it in a year, ONS redact any name given to two or fewer in total, Finland counts living citizens rather than births. It is an indication of how widely the name is recorded, not a measurement of how many people have it.
How it is said
θˈɛlmə
From the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, free for any use. The symbols are IPA, converted from CMU's notation by the published correspondence. Two things in that conversion are ours rather than theirs: an unstressed vowel is written as a schwa, and the stress mark sits before the stressed vowel rather than at the start of its syllable — CMU record no syllable boundaries, so placing it properly would mean guessing where the syllables fall.
Where these numbers come from
United States, 1880 to 2025
As a girl's name, Thelma was registered 225,460 times in the United States between 1880 and 2025, most often in the 1920s.
As a boy's name, Thelma was registered 1,142 times in the United States between 1890 and 1969, most often in the 1920s.
England and Wales, 1996 to 2025
117 babies, from a register that begins in 1996. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Office for National Statistics. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — ONS redact a name given to two or fewer babies in total, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Scotland, 1974 to 2025
3 babies, from a register that begins in 1974. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: National Records of Scotland. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — NRS suppress a name given to two or fewer babies in a year, under section 38 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
One thing about the Scottish figures that is true of no other column here. NRS ignore accents: in their words, Chloé, Chlöe and Chloe “are all counted as the same name”. So a Scottish count covers every way of accenting a name, and the counts beside it do not.
Northern Ireland
On the register, with the number withheld. Thelma appears in the Northern Irish figures in 1 year, and NISRA publish no count for any of them: the name went to fewer than three babies in each of those years, and they withhold the number rather than the name. That is not a count of nought — it is a name somebody was given.
NISRA fold accents before publishing, in their words: “Names containing accents have been recorded without those accents.” Only Scotland does the same. So a Northern Irish figure covers every accenting of a name and most of the figures beside it do not.
Ireland, 1964 to 2025
228 babies, from a register that begins in 1964. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Central Statistics Office. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — the CSO name a name once it reaches three in any single year and then leave every quieter year blank, so an Irish total is a floor, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Norway, 1945 to 2025
587 babies, from a register that begins in 1945. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Statistics Norway. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — SSB withhold any figure under four, and list only names used by at least two hundred people in the previous year, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Two things about the Norwegian column. Its table is labelled 1880 onwards and holds nothing before 1945, so that is where it starts here. And SSB changed the definition in 2021, from year of birth to year of naming, so the last few years count a slightly different thing from the decades before them.
Sweden, 1998 to 2022
701 babies, from a register that begins in 1998. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Statistics Sweden, released under CC0, which asks for no credit at all. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — SCB withhold anything under two — and under ten before 2004, which is a different bar in the same table, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
The Swedish bar moved in 2004. Until 2003 a name was published only if ten or more babies of that sex were given it; from 2004, two. A Swedish column that looks thin in its first years is showing that rule, not a name becoming popular. The series also stops: SCB ceased producing name statistics in 2024, so 2022 is the last year there will be. And what it counts is a tilltalsnamn — the given name a person actually goes by — rather than every name on the register.
France, 1900 to 2023
3,474 babies, from a register that begins in 1900. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Insee. Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab). The registers withhold small counts on different rules — Insee withhold the YEAR rather than the name, pooling the births of a name given to fewer than three babies of a sex in a year into one undated record, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Belgium
Counted, but not dated. Thelma was given to 51 babies in Belgium, and not one of those births has a year published against it. Statbel publish one ten-year total per municipality and no year column at all, so there is nothing to date these births to. This is the whole of what they publish for this name.
Source: Statbel, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — Statbel apply their threshold of five separately in each of 545 municipalities, so a name given to four babies in each of fifty towns is published nowhere.
Belgium is the only register here with no years in it, so it appears on every page as a single figure. And that figure is a sum of municipal counts that each reached five on their own — a floor with a hole in the middle rather than at the edge.
Austria, 1984 to 2025
4 babies, from a register that begins in 1984. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Statistik Austria. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — Statistik Austria withhold no count at all — where a name was given fewer than four times in a year they withhold the district instead, and publish the number, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Austria is the only column on this page that is a total rather than a floor: nothing is held back except which district a birth was in. Two things do limit it. It records first names only, so a child registered Anna Maria is an Anna. And its coverage widens twice — to 2009 it counts only babies with Austrian citizenship, from 2010 every baby born in Austria, and from 2015 also babies born abroad to mothers living there — so the later decades are larger partly by rule and not only by naming.
Austrian spellings are also partly folded. Statistik Austria transcode names so that spellings alike but for their marks come together, and the only marks that survive are the six German umlauts. So an Austrian figure for an unaccented spelling covers the accented ways of writing it as well, and the figures beside it do not.
Switzerland, 2000 to 2025
95 babies, from a register that begins in 2000. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Federal Statistical Office. Open use, source must be provided. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — the Federal Statistical Office withhold no count either — the smallest figure they publish is one baby — but they do not list every name, and about one Swiss baby in ten is given a name that is not on their list, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Switzerland suppresses no figure at all — a Swiss count of one is published as one — so what is missing here is never a small number. It is a name. The published lists hold 2,724 boys’ names and 2,628 girls’ names, against Austria’s 23,938 for a country of much the same size, and no rule is given for what puts a name on them. Rather than guess at the rule, here is the size of it measured: those names account for 69,993 of the 78,153 births the office reports for 2025.
Poland
Not in this register. Thelma does not appear in the Polish figures for 2000 to 2025. the Ministry left out any name given fewer than five times in a year up to 2012, and fewer than two from 2013. So an absence in the early years is a weaker statement than an absence in the later ones.
Canada, 1991 to 2024
22 babies, from a register that begins in 1991. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Statistics Canada, table 17-10-0147-01. Adapted from Statistics Canada, First names at birth by sex at birth, 1991–2024. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — Statistics Canada withhold any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, and publish no single-letter name — the same bar as the Americans, set by a different authority, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Canada is usually said not to have a national name register, because births are registered province by province and most published lists are provincial top tens stitched together. Statistics Canada do assemble them: this is one table for the whole country, built from the Canadian Vital Statistics birth database together with Retraite Québec’s list of names.
Argentina, 2012 to 2024
101 people on the register, from a register that begins in 2012. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: RENAPER, the Dirección Nacional de Población. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — RENAPER publish no count below two, and publish no sex at all — the column here is every baby, not girls and boys apart, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Two things about the Argentine column are unlike every other on this page. RENAPER publish no sex: their file with a sex column holds 169 names, and the one used here holds 14,917 and does not say. Splitting a figure between girls and boys would invent the only thing it leaves out, so the column is simply everybody.
And it counts the living, not births registered. RENAPER count people nacidas vivas e identificadas
— born alive and holding a document — as the register stood in September 2024. So a 2012 figure is how many people born that year were still on the register twelve years later, not how many babies were registered then. Anyone who died, or never received a document, is not counted. Every other register on this site counts the birth itself.
One more difference, and this one is a gain: Argentina counts every given name, so a child called María Sofía is a María and a Sofía. Surnames are never counted here, in any register.
Finland
Counted, but not dated. Thelma is a name in force for 236 living Finnish citizens, and not one of them has a year of birth published against them. DVV publish no year of birth at all, so there is nothing to date this to. It is a census of names in use on 3 August 2026.
Source: Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — DVV publish no name held by fewer than five people, and apply that threshold separately to first names and to middle names.
The Finnish column is not a count of births, and it is the furthest from one on this site. DVV count the names in force of living Finnish citizens, resident in Finland or abroad. So somebody who has died is not counted at all; somebody who changed their name is counted under the new one; a Finnish citizen in Sydney is counted and a resident of Helsinki who is not a citizen is not. Every other register here counts an event in a territory.
And there are no years in it whatever — not a range trimmed for space, but no year column at all. What it is good at is breadth: DVV publish every name held by five or more people, first names and middle names alike, which is why Finland brings more names to this site than any register but the American and French ones. Surnames are published separately and are never used here.
Greenland, 2002 to 2025
1 residents, from a register that begins in 2002. Its decades cannot be compared with the American ones, which reach back to 1880: where the two tables above put them in the same row, they are counting different lengths of record.
Source: Statistics Greenland, bank.stat.gl. Free to reproduce, commercial use included, with attribution. The registers withhold small counts on different rules — Statistics Greenland withhold nothing at all — their smallest published figure is 1, so no name and no number is held back for being rare, and the Americans hide one given to fewer than five in a year — so a name in one table and not another may only have met different thresholds.
Greenland counts residents, not births. Statistics Greenland's population register holds the names of everyone resident on 1 July, and this column arranges them by year of birth. So a 2002 figure is how many people born that year were living in Greenland when the register was last read — not how many babies were born there. Anyone who has left, or died, is not counted; anyone who arrived is. Argentina's column is the same shape.
It hides nothing, which only Austria can also say: the smallest figure they publish is 1. And it carries a category no other register here has — Ikke-navngivet, not named. Greenlandic children are often on the register before they are named, so each birth year is read nine years on, by which point fewer than two in a hundred are still unnamed. Read a year after birth instead, that figure is closer to a third.
First forenames only. Greenland publish a second forename nowhere, so unlike Poland and Finland there are no middle names in this column. Surnames they do publish, and this site never uses them.
The Social Security Administration publish the name on every United States birth registration from 1880 onward, and dedicate the data to the public domain under CC0. This page adds nothing to it: the counts are theirs, grouped by decade.
One gap, and it matters here more than anywhere. SSA publish a name only where five or more babies were given it in a year. A name you cannot find is not a name nobody used — it is a name used four times or fewer, and no site built on this data can see it.
The pronunciation above comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which covers some names and not others. Meanings are not here yet. When they arrive they will come from named scholarship old enough to be out of copyright, and where two authorities disagree the page will say so rather than picking one.