Erma

Where Erma comes from

The dictionaries list Erma as a given name — a female given name from the Germanic languages, of rare usage, variant of Irma — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Germanic
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #282 among girls — 30 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1911
    Peak, #138
    595 babies named Erma — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1927
    Erma Bombeck born
    American humorist and writer
  4. 1938
    Erma Franklin born
    American musician, gospel and soul singer
  5. 1959
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #607.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from the Germanic languages, of rare usage, variant of Irma.
Namesakes
  • Erma Bombeck · American humorist and writer, 1927–1996
  • Erma Franklin · American musician, gospel and soul singer, 1938–2002
  • Erma Sulistianingsih · Indonesian badminton player, born 1965
  • Erma Elzy-Jones · American director
  • Erma Bergmann · All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player, 1924–2015

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.