Thelma

A name made famous by a novel

Thelma became widely known through Marie Corelli's 1887 novel of the same name. It was already a rare name when she used it for her Norwegian heroine, so the book popularized it rather than necessarily inventing it. Its deeper meaning remains uncertain.

The name is sometimes linked with Greek thelema, meaning “will,” but that derivation is doubtful. The strongest part of its modern history is literary: Corelli's novel brought an unusual name before a large reading public, and it became much more familiar around the end of the nineteenth century.

Thelma Guldmar's story

The novel follows Thelma Guldmar, a young Norwegian woman who meets the English gentleman Sir Philip Bruce-Errington when he travels to Norway. Their romance leads to marriage and takes Thelma into London society, where the setting changes from the northern landscape to a world of status and social rivalry.

Her arrival arouses jealousy, and supposed friends manipulate events around her. The story puts the marriage under pressure through deception and misunderstanding. That contrast between the heroine's straightforwardness and the schemes of her new surroundings gives the name a particular place in late-Victorian popular fiction.

The title keeps Thelma herself at the center of the book. Its success helped the name move beyond a single fictional character into everyday use, with a substantial American popularity peak during the following generation.

Thelma Schoonmaker and film editing

Film editor Thelma Schoonmaker gives the name a major connection with modern cinema. Her long collaboration with director Martin Scorsese includes Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Aviator, and The Departed. Her work shapes the pace, contrasts, and emotional movement of those films through the choice and arrangement of shots.

She received Academy Awards for editing Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2019. Her credits also include the documentary Woodstock, providing an earlier chapter in a career spanning very different kinds of filmmaking.

Schoonmaker has also worked to preserve and promote the films of her late husband, director Michael Powell, and his collaborator Emeric Pressburger. That restoration work gives her association with cinema a further dimension beyond the films she has edited herself.

Pronunciation and sound

English Thelma is pronounced THEL-muh, with two syllables and the stress at the beginning. The opening th is the sound of “thin,” followed by a short e. Its central lm and final a give it a compact shape with a softer ending.

Popularity in the United States

Thelma reached its best American rank for girls in 1910, at number 25. Its largest annual count came in 1921, with 7,839 births. It ranked number 5,112 in 2015 and number 4,865 in 2020. In 2025 it ranked number 4,744, with 29 births, making it a rare choice compared with its early-twentieth-century peak.

How popular is Thelma?

In 2025, Thelma ranked #4,744 among girls in the United States, with 29 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 7,839 in 1921. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.