Ilma
Ilma was given to 14 girls in 2025, #7,629 among girls’ names; 424 Americans have been recorded with it since 1885 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ilma by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ilma mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Ilma is “a female given name” Its etymology gives the sense “air” (ilma).
From ilma (“air”) in the 19th century. Also shortened from Ilmatar, ilman impi, spirits of air in Finnish mythology.
/ˈilmɑ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ilma?
#7,629 among girls’ names, 2025
Ilma rose from #15,217 in 2015 to #7,629 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 3.4 to 8.7 per million.
15 babies in 1917, the peak
Ilma peaked in 1917, when 15 girls were given it, #2,253 among girls’ names. The 14 births of 2025 are 93% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | #7,629 | 8.7 |
| 2024 | 6 | #14,135 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,643 | 5.6 |
| 2022 | 7 | #12,743 | 4.3 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,597 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,105 | 3.7 |
| 2019 | 10 | #10,016 | 6.0 |
| 2018 | 12 | #8,833 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 8 | #12,046 | 4.6 |
| 2016 | 7 | #13,433 | 4.0 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 6 | #15,217 | 3.4 |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,329 | 3.4 |
| 2013 | 5 | #17,585 | 2.8 |
| 2011 | 5 | #17,808 | 2.8 |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,244 | 3.8 |
| 2008 | 6 | #16,150 | 3.2 |
| 2006 | 6 | #15,851 | 3.2 |
| 2004 | 6 | #14,837 | 3.3 |
| 2003 | 7 | #12,925 | 3.8 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,138 | 3.1 |
| 1954 | 8 | #4,418 | 4.1 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,737 | 2.8 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,525 | 4.6 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,596 | 4.5 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,620 | 4.7 |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,024 | 4.3 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,522 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,536 | 5.1 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,661 | 4.9 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,181 | 5.6 |
| 1923 | 7 | #4,151 | 5.8 |
| 1922 | 12 | #2,860 | 10.0 |
| 1921 | 11 | #3,030 | 8.9 |
| 1920 | 7 | #4,164 | 5.8 |
| 1919 | 15 | #2,315 | 13.3 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,902 | 9.5 |
| 1917 | 15 | #2,253 | 13.9 |
| 1916 | 10 | #2,921 | 9.6 |
| 1915 | 13 | #2,311 | 13.2 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,745 | 10.5 |
| 1912 | 7 | #2,487 | 12.5 |
| 1911 | 12 | #1,409 | 28.7 |
| 1910 | 5 | #2,577 | 12.6 |
| 1909 | 5 | #2,361 | 14.4 |
| 1907 | 10 | #1,335 | 31.4 |
| 1906 | 10 | #1,262 | 33.9 |
| 1902 | 7 | #1,509 | 26.5 |
| 1898 | 7 | #1,430 | 27.1 |
| 1897 | 6 | #1,453 | 25.6 |
| 1895 | 8 | #1,243 | 34.2 |
| 1893 | 6 | #1,344 | 28.2 |
| 1892 | 9 | #1,043 | 42.4 |
| 1891 | 6 | #1,264 | 32.3 |
| 1887 | 5 | #1,216 | 34.3 |
| 1885 | 6 | #978 | 45.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ilma a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ilma has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Ilma: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ilma, and how old are they?
An estimated 161 Americans named Ilma and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (38% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 18. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 694 people named Ilma (686 women and girls, 8 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 121 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.7 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 556 babies since 1880, Ilma is the most given (76% 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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ilma
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ilma and names like it
- Compare Ilma and IlamaeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sIlma peaked in 1917.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ilma since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Ilma: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1917The year the most babies were named Ilma.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ilma alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with IMost given first.