Wilma
Barely a hundred women in Poland carry it, and not one newborn has been registered with it this century: most Poles have never met a Wilma. Germanic at root, it means "resolute protector".
Wilma Pronunciation
Wilma is pronounced VEEL-mah (/ˈvilma/).
What Wilma means
Where Wilma comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Wilma comes from Germanic roots. It is a short form of Wilhelmina, the feminine of Wilhelm, built from wil, meaning will or determination, and helm, meaning helmet or protection. Join the halves and you reach the meaning given here: resolute protector. The name moved north and settled into Scandinavian use.
There the sound stays plain and firm. Wilma needs no diminutive to soften it, and it takes none. The American sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who won three gold medals in Rome in 1960, showed how much the short form can hold.
Picture a Polish teacher reading a class register and pausing at Wilma among the Zuzannas and Julias. The name is rare here, foreign to the ear, yet its two Germanic pieces still do their work. Will and protection sit inside four letters, and the meaning holds: resolute protector.
How many people are named Wilma
1 in 218872 women in Poland is named Wilma. 103 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3389 among female names.
Wilma as a middle name
Wilma is a first name for 103 women in Poland and a middle name for another 26, an 80/20 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1411th, between Shannon (26) and Yaneth (26).
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#1409 Perla26
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#1410 Shannon26
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#1411 Wilma26
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#1412 Yaneth26
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#1413 Zohra26