Zelma
Just about 60 women in Poland carry it, and no newborn has been registered with it since 2000. Germanic at root, it means "god's helmet", a name of divine protection.
Zelma Pronunciation
Zelma is pronounced ZEL-mah (/ˈzɛlma/).
What Zelma means
Where Zelma comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Zelma comes from the Germanic name Anselm. It joins two old roots: ans, a word meaning god, and helm, meaning helmet. Together they read as god's helmet, a picture of divine protection. The feminine form Anselma wore down over time, and Zelma is one of the short forms it left behind.
The meaning points to armour. The helm in Zelma is the same element found in Wilhelm and Helmut. The saint Anselm of Canterbury, who died in 1109, carried the same root, and his name spread the ans-helm pattern across medieval Europe.
In a Polish class register today, Zelma would sit apart from the Annas and Zofias, short and unfamiliar. Zelma keeps its old promise in a small space: five letters, one helmet, god's protection.
How many people are named Zelma
1 in 369571 women in Poland is named Zelma. 61 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4736 among female names.
Zelma as a middle name
Zelma is a first name for 61 women in Poland and a middle name for another 31, a 66/34 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1277th, between Wielisława (31) and Alessia (30).
-
#1275 Wendy31
-
#1276 Wielisława31
-
#1277 Zelma31
-
#1278 Alessia30
-
#1279 Annabel30