Zelma
Feminine
Zelma is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,824 girls against 112 boys since 1880.
Zelma is Selma with a z, and Selma's own origin is a genuine puzzle — it may come from a hall in an eighteenth-century literary forgery that fooled most of literate Europe.
How old is the name Zelma?
Zelma was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Zelma alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. About 3,400 people named Zelma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zelma most popular?
Zelma peaked in 1902, reaching #216 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 6,622 places below that high. See the whole 1902 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Selma to Zelma
The story of Zelma
The Ossian poems were enormously influential across Europe — read by Goethe, admired by Napoleon — and they seeded a set of names that had no earlier existence. Selma spread through Scandinavia and Germany in the nineteenth century and reached America with emigration from both. Zelma is the z-spelling, which American registers carry in real numbers from the 1880s, peaking around 1920.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two accounts. Selma may be a shortening of Anselma, the feminine of Anselm — the Germanic ans, 'god', and helm, 'helmet'. Or it may come from the Ossian poems published in the 1760s, in which Selma is the name of a royal hall; those poems were presented as ancient Gaelic and were largely the work of their editor. Nothing settles which route the name actually took.
How the name formed
- Selma
- Zelma
Related forms: Selma · Selma · Selma
Pronouncing Zelma
ZEL-muh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Zelma and Selma differ audibly at the front, unlike most respellings of the period.
Nicknames for Zelma
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
- 1919488 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #216reached in 1902
- Change vs 2022
- +33.3%16 in 2025, from 12
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.
Zelma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Selma in Swedish — spelling variant
- Selma in German — spelling variant
- Selma in Turkish — same name
Zelmas among us
people named Zelma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Zelma
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
Zelma 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
Zelma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zelma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The z gives the written name a genuinely distinct look and sound.
- Two firm syllables that stand up well against a long surname.
- It is genuinely rare now while being entirely traditional in the registers.
- The origin is unsettled and one of the two candidates is an eighteenth-century literary invention.
- Selma is commoner and will often be assumed.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Zelma
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zelmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Zelma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Zelma in 2025?
- Zelma ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zelma?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Zelma — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zelma with classmates?
- Zelma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zelma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zelma? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Zelma and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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