# Irma (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/irma/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | “whole”, “entire” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Erma |
| US babies named this | 74,021 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 252 / 73,769 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 13, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From German Irma in the nineteenth century. Short form of Germanic names beginning with irm(en)-, erm(en) "whole, entire", from Proto-Germanic *ermunaz. Cognate with English Emma.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 72 | 2,518 |
| 2012 | 63 | 2,784 |
| 2013 | 48 | 3,339 |
| 2014 | 67 | 2,626 |
| 2015 | 67 | 2,663 |
| 2016 | 71 | 2,526 |
| 2017 | 71 | 2,521 |
| 2018 | 52 | 3,130 |
| 2019 | 44 | 3,524 |
| 2020 | 69 | 2,510 |
| 2021 | 60 | 2,835 |
| 2022 | 70 | 2,539 |
| 2023 | 68 | 2,600 |
| 2024 | 68 | 2,592 |
| 2025 | 50 | 3,181 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 6 | 3,685 |
| 1957 | 7 | 3,384 |
| 1958 | 5 | 4,200 |
| 1959 | 8 | 3,140 |
| 1961 | 6 | 3,813 |
| 1962 | 5 | 4,308 |
| 1963 | 7 | 3,458 |
| 1965 | 5 | 4,157 |
| 1966 | 5 | 4,202 |
| 1974 | 5 | 5,543 |
| 1978 | 5 | 6,191 |
| 1981 | 7 | 5,156 |
| 1982 | 5 | 6,751 |
| 1987 | 7 | 5,727 |
| 1990 | 5 | 8,644 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 4 | 3,725 |
| 2007 | 3 | 5,201 |
| 2014 | 3 | 5,691 |
| 2016 | 3 | 5,785 |

## People named Irma

- Irma Grese, German concentration camp guard (1923–1945)
- Irma Thomas, American soul and rhythm and blues singer
- Irma P. Hall, American actress
- Irma, Cameroonian singer-songwriter
- Irma Adelman, American economist (1930-2017)
- Irma Saenger-Sethe, Belgian violinist
- Irma Kurti, Albanian poet
- Irma Boom, Dutch graphic designer (born 1960)
- Irma Seikkula, Finnish actress
- Irma Wyman, American computer scientist (1928–2015)
- Irma Adlawan, Filipino actress (born 1972)
- Irma St. Paule, American actress (1926–2007)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.