Helms
surname · English · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Helms is a surname, most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is the 31st most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and German, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: 2. North German and Dutch: patronymic from Helm 2-3.
- DEGermany1 in 236◐
- ATAustria1 in 704
- CHSwitzerland1 in 7.4K
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈10K ●
- 5 ●
- Sources
- 385 ●
- 1 in 12K ◐
across 11 countries
recorded for this name
812K records
Official registry-verified
Czechia
Spellings & scripts●
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Helmut in DE Germany, AT Austria, BR Brazil and 9 more, Гельмут in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan and Hel'Mut in LV Latvia.
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●
2. North German and Dutch: patronymic from Helm 2-3.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE Germany | #31 | 512,308 | 482K rec. | — | 2 | Helmut | 251 |
| AT Austria | #145 | 23,070 | 11K rec. | — | 982 | Helmut | 151 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | 9,419 | 9.3K rec. | — | listed | Helms | 60 |
| CA Canada | — | 5,749 | 5.6K rec. | — | — | Helms | 65 |
| AU Australia | — | 4,953 | 4.8K rec. | — | 4 | Helms | 84 |
| BR Brazil | — | 4,043△ | 6 rec. | 1 in 52K | 5.4K | Helmut | 4 |
| PL Poland | — | 2,012 | 2.7K rec. | 1 in 19K | 2.1K | Helmut | 2 |
| US United States | — | 1,963 | 273K rec. | 1 in 169K | 30K | Helms | 385 |
| IT Italy | — | 1,671 | 1.7K rec. | — | 1 | Helms | 57 |
| BE Belgium | — | 1,618 | 1.7K rec. | — | 14 | Helmut | 42 |
| CH Switzerland | #625 | 1,099 | 760 rec. | — | 23 | Helmut | 54 |
| RU Russia | — | 1,043 | 933 rec. | — | — | Гельмут | 70 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- English268K84%
- German12K4%
- 10K3%
- Spanish8.8K3%
- French2.1K1%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| English | 268,287 | 84% |
| German | 12,100 | 4% |
| 9,979 | 3% | |
| Spanish | 8,819 | 3% |
| French | 2,132 | 1% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Helms 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, Jesse, US politician
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In German, zu ahd. helm 'Helm'; Rufname Helm-
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, Genitivische Surname zu Helm(e); belegt 2030-mal. Die Karte zeigt die Verkürzung -ms gegenüber -mes.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 1: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen I, Vokalismus
In German, Berufsname zum Helmschmied/Helmhersteller; 2030 Belege.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 5: Familiennamen nach Beruf und persönlichen Merkmalen
In German, zu Rufnamen mit Helm-; Kurzform zu Helm- Namen
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
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.
Notable people with this name●
- Hermann Helmsb. 1870USAmerican chess player and writer (1870–1963)
- Richard Helmsb. 1913USDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency (1913–2002)
- Jesse Helmsb. 1921USAmerican politician (1921–2008)
- Wilhelm Helmsb. 1923DEGerman politician (1923-2019)
- Bobby Helmsb. 1933USAmerican male singer (1933–1997)
- Monica Helmsb. 1951USAmerican transgender activist and writer
- Susan J. Helmsb. 1958USLieutenant General in the United States Air Force and NASA astronaut
- Ed Helmsb. 1974USAmerican actor and comedian
- Gregory Helmsb. 1974USAmerican professional wrestler
- Wes Helmsb. 1976USAmerican baseball player
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●
Attested in 30 sources across 17 countries.
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 43 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Helms?
- We estimate roughly 10 thousand people bear Helms (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.
- In which country does Helms have the most bearers?
- Helms is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled helmut.
- How common is Helms compared with other names?
- In Germany, Helms is the 31st most common given name of 154,506 given names recorded there.
- What does the name Helms mean?
- Recorded meaning: 2. North German and Dutch: patronymic from Helm 2-3.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/helmsThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Helms” — the 31st most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.