Word.ws English Dictionary

Thelma

Thelma proper noun: a female given name originating as a coinage.

Proper noun

Thelma

  1. A female given name originating as a coinage.
    • "Just the sort of name to suit a Norwegian nymph or goddess. Thelma is quaint and appropriate, and as far as I can remember there's no rhyme to it in the English language. Thelma!"1887, Marie Corelli, Thelma, a Norwegian Princess, R. Bentley, published 1896, page 14

Origin of Thelma

A literary invention, first appeared in the Swedish novel Kyrkoinvigningen i Hammarby (1840-1841) by Emilie Flygare-Carlén, translated into English as "The Magic Goblet" (1845). Similar names of ambiguous origin, Elma, Selma, Velma, appeared in the 19th century. By folk etymology explained as Ancient Greek θέλημα (thélēma, “will”). Notice also the Spanish and Portuguese Telma, a rare feminine form of Telmo, ultimately from Santelmo or Saint Elmo.

Words formed from Thelma

Questions about Thelma

What does Thelma mean?
Thelma means a female given name originating as a coinage.
What part of speech is Thelma?
Thelma is a proper noun.

Words near Thelma in the dictionary

  1. thelia
  2. thelion
  3. thelions
  4. thelitis
  5. thelium
  6. Thelma
  7. Thelma and Louise
  8. thelmophagous
  9. thelodont
  10. thelodontid
  11. thelodontids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Thelma (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Thelma.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thelma. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.