Elmina
Feminine · “Germanic wil and helm”
Wilhelm is will plus helmet. The Germanic helm element is one of the standard second halves of a two-part name, alongside spear, shield, bear and wolf, and it appears in William, Anselm and Helmut. Elmina is a clipped feminine of it, and the helmet is still in there under three layers of shortening.
How old is the name Elmina?
Elmina was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Elmina alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 300 people named Elmina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elmina most popular?
Elmina peaked in 1880, reaching #628 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,734 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From Wilhelm to Elmina
The story of Elmina
Germanic naming drew its elements from a small stock and a striking share of them are pieces of equipment. Helm is a helmet; gar and ger a spear; brand a sword or firebrand; lind the linden wood a shield was made of; brun a coat of mail. Alongside these are the animals, bear, wolf and boar, and the abstractions, fame, counsel, power and peace. A name was assembled from two of them without any requirement that the combination make sense, which is how William comes to mean will-helmet. The English form arrived with the Conqueror and became the most common man's name in England within a century. Wilhelmina is the Dutch and German feminine, carried by a queen of the Netherlands who reigned from 1890 to 1948, and its clipped forms, Elmina, Mina and Willa, spread widely in nineteenth-century America.
Meaningscholars disagree
Germanic wil and helm, will and helmet
Elmina is generally a short form of Wilhelmina, the Dutch and German feminine of Wilhelm, from wil, will or desire, and helm, a helmet or protection. It may also be a variant of Elmira or a nineteenth-century American formation on the El- prefix. It peaks in 1880, the first year of the American record, which places its real height earlier.
How the name formed
- Wilhelm
- Wilhelmina
- Elmina
Related forms: Wilhelmina · Wilhelmine
Pronouncing Elmina
el-MY-nah
Three syllables, stress on the second. el-MEE-nah, with a long e, is also heard and is the reading a Spanish or Italian speaker would give it. The two circulate together.
Nicknames for Elmina
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 191626 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #628reached in 1880
- Change vs 2023
- +71.4%12 in 2025, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Elmina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Wilhelmina in Dutch — related form
- Wilhelmine in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Ohio.
Elminas among us
people named Elmina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Elmina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Elmina sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Elmina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elmina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Germanic elements behind Wilhelmina are settled.
- Mina is a clean short form and a name in its own right.
- It fits the current revival of nineteenth-century names.
- Two vowel readings of the stressed syllable circulate.
- It shares its spelling with a historic fort on the coast of Ghana that was a major site of the Atlantic slave trade.
- Elmira and Elmina are easily confused.
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Elmina
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elminas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Elmina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Elmina in 2025?
- Elmina ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elmina?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Elmina — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elmina with classmates?
- Elmina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elmina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elmina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elmina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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