Elma

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Elma is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name160K records spelled Elma31 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Languages: English, German, Portuguese

  Also written Jelma, Yelma, E'Lma, Èlma, Eĺma

• Finnish given name37K records spelled Elma4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Philippines, United States, Estonia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Èlmä, Ęĺmą

• Turkish given name28K records spelled Elma4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Philippines, United States, Syria

  Also written Ëlma, Elmã

• Indonesian given name12K records spelled Elma5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, United States

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written 'Elma, Ĕlma, Élma

• French given name7.9K records spelled Elma10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Philippines, Spain

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Ėlmå, El-Ma, El-Mã, Èlmà, Elmà

• Croatian given name3.8K records spelled Elma10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, United States

  Languages: Croatian, Macedonian, Bosnian

  Also written Елма

• Albanian given name1.9K records spelled Elma3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, United States, Italy, Serbia

  Also written Elmà, Èlmá

53 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Elma is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A female given name originating as a coinage.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Elma är ursprungligen en smekform till namn som Elmira, Vilhelma eller en feminin form till → Elmer. Det kan också vara en sammanslagning av delar av namnen → Elisa beth och → Maria. Namnet blev populärt runt förra sekelskiftet samtidigt med namn med liknande struktur som → Alma, → Hilma och → Selma, namn som också idag är populära. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 12 februari.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In French, Germanic name meaning ‘helmet’.

  as a name·Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

• In English, pleasant, amiable

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, seit dem 19. Jh. vorkommender weibl.

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Elma Strömb. 1822SESwedish actress
• Elma Danielssonb. 1865SESwedish journalist
• Elma Lewisb. 1921USfounder of the National Center of Afro-American Artists and the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (1921–2004)
• Elma Parsamyanb. 1929AMsoviet Armenian astrophysicist and astronomer
• Elma Karlowab. 1932HRYugoslav actress (1932-1994)
• Elma van Harenb. 1954NLDutch poet and writer
• Elma Murosb. 1967PHFilipino long jumper
• Elma Davisb. 1968ZASouth African lawn bowler (1968-2019)
• Elma Sinanovićb. 1974RSBosniak singer
• Elma de Vriesb. 1983NLDutch speed skater

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,017 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Elma?

We estimate roughly 31 thousand people bear Elma (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Elma have the most bearers?

Elma is most frequently recorded in the Philippines, where it is most often spelled elma.

Where is Elma most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Elma is densest in Iceland — about 1 in 1.6 thousand people — even though Philippines holds more of our records for it.

How common is Elma compared with other names?

In the Philippines, Elma is the 539th most common given name of 462,140 given names recorded there.

Is Elma a male or female name?

Elma is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Elma mean?

Recorded meaning: Short form or variant of Germanic names beginning with El-, often interpreted as 'noble' or 'protection'.