Helmi
Helmi was last recorded in 1928, when 6 babies were given it; 365 Americans have been recorded with it between 1898 and 1928 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Helmi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Helmi mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Helmi is “a female given name” Its etymology gives the sense “pearl” (helmi).
A 19th-century invention, partly from helmi (“pearl”), partly a shortened form of Vilhelmiina.
/ˈhelmi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Helmi?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #4,403, in 1928; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
29 babies in 1918, the peak
Helmi peaked in 1918, when 29 girls were given it, #1,467 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | 6 | #4,403 | 5.2 |
| 1927 | 8 | #3,689 | 6.7 |
| 1926 | 11 | #2,953 | 9.3 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,497 | 7.4 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,709 | 4.8 |
| 1923 | 10 | #3,222 | 8.3 |
| 1922 | 10 | #3,243 | 8.3 |
| 1921 | 19 | #2,077 | 15.4 |
| 1920 | 17 | #2,212 | 14.2 |
| 1919 | 21 | #1,820 | 18.6 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | 29 | #1,467 | 25.1 |
| 1917 | 25 | #1,526 | 23.1 |
| 1916 | 22 | #1,648 | 21.1 |
| 1915 | 27 | #1,380 | 27.4 |
| 1914 | 18 | #1,569 | 23.6 |
| 1913 | 14 | #1,631 | 22.4 |
| 1912 | 12 | #1,658 | 21.5 |
| 1911 | 15 | #1,200 | 35.9 |
| 1910 | 5 | #2,568 | 12.6 |
| 1909 | 9 | #1,522 | 25.9 |
| 1908 | 12 | #1,228 | 35.9 |
| 1907 | 9 | #1,442 | 28.3 |
| 1906 | 8 | #1,477 | 27.1 |
| 1905 | 12 | #1,120 | 41.1 |
| 1904 | 10 | #1,201 | 36.3 |
| 1902 | 5 | #1,899 | 18.9 |
| 1901 | 6 | #1,559 | 25.1 |
| 1900 | 5 | #2,049 | 16.7 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,806 | 19.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Helmi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Helmi has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 29 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Helmi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Helmi, and how old are they?
An estimated 1 Americans named Helmi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 198 people named Helmi (102 women and girls, 96 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8 born in the U.S. The Census count is 24.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 960 babies since 1880, Helmi is the second most given (38% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Helmi and names like it
- Compare Helmi and HelmaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sHelmi peaked in 1918.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Helmi since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Helmi: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Helmi.
- Names starting with HMost given first.