Ophelia

Where Ophelia comes from

Borrowed from Italian Ofelia, coined by the poet Jacopo Sannazaro in his poem Arcadia (1504), probably from the Ancient Greek ὠφέλειᾰ (ōphéleiă, “help, aid, succour”). The name was used by William Shakespeare for the daugher of Polonius and ill-fated love interest of Hamlet. The moon (of Uranus) is named after this character. Doublet of anopheles
— Wiktionary's entry for Ophelia
  • Ancient Greek
  • 4 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #233 among girls — 44 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1882
    Peak, #230
    56 babies named Ophelia — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1973
    Ophelia Hayford born
    Ghanaian politician
  4. 1986
    Ophelia Lovibond born
    English actress
  5. 2024
    The comeback
    Back to #259 after sinking to #6,067 in 2001.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Ophelia Lovibond · English actress, born 1986
  • Ophelia Hayford · Ghanaian politician, born 1973
  • Ophelia Pastrana · Colombian-Mexican YouTuber, born 1982
  • Ophelia Crossland · Ghanaian fashion designer and businesswoman, born 1983
  • Ophelia Hoff Saytumah · Liberian politician, born 2000

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.