Zelma — #6615 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Zelma

The Social Security Administration has registered 16,807 babies named Zelma between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Zelma currently holds the #6615 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1919, when 488 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Zelma performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 4,111 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Zelma shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Texas, which accounts for 1,425 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Kentucky and Oklahoma. In total, SSA state-level files list Zelma in 34 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Zelma in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 16,807 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.