Irma
A Germanic name at root, carrying the sense of "whole" or "universal". Fewer than a thousand women in Poland answer to it, and with no newborns last year it's a name most Poles will never meet in person.
Irma Pronunciation
Irma is pronounced EER-mah (/ˈirma/).
What Irma means
Where Irma comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Irma comes from the old Germanic element irmin, which carried the sense of something great and all-encompassing. Names built on this root, such as Irmgard, spread across the early medieval Germanic world before Irma settled as a name on its own.
The same irmin appears in the Irminsul, a sacred pillar the Saxons venerated until Charlemagne's forces cut it down in 772. Behind that column stood the notion of something entire, a wholeness that later drew close to the personal name. The root points to totality. To read Irma this way is to hear a short word doing large work.
On a Polish class register the name sits complete, four letters and nothing spare. Its imieniny and its plain shape ask for no diminutive. What remains is the Germanic meaning the name began with: whole, universal, great.
How many people are named Irma
1 in 22749 women in Poland is named Irma. 991 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #969 among female names.
Irma's popularity over time
0 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Irma as a middle name
Irma is a first name for 991 women in Poland and a middle name for another 380, a 72/28 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 349th, between Lucia (381) and Lara (377).
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347
386Erika
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348
381Lucia
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349380Irma
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350
377Lara
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351
373Leonia