Velma is an English feminine given name of uncertain origin. It might have been created as a rhyming variant of the names Selma and Thelma. It might also have been influenced by the Scandinavian name Vilma or by Wilma, both short forms of the Dutch and German Wilhelmina and feminine versions of William.
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Usage
The name has been most common in North America. It was among the 1,000 most popular names for girls in the United States between 1880 and 1973 and was at the height of its popularity between 1903 and 1917, when it was among the 100 most popular names for American girls. It reached peak popularity in 1912, when it was the 88th most popular name for newborn American girls. It was at peak popularity in Canada between 1920 and 1933, when it was among the top 100 names for Canadian girls. It is famously used as Scooby-Doo character's name, Velma Dinkley.
Women
Velma Abbott (1929–1987), Canadian baseball player
Velma Barfield (1932–1984), American murderer
Velma Wayne Dawson (1912–2007), American puppet maker
Velma Demerson (1920–2019), Canadian woman imprisoned for having a baby out of wedlock with a Chinese man
Velma Dunn (1918–2007), American diver
Velma Gaines-Hamock (1910–2000), American funeral home owner
Velma Hopkins (1909–1996), American labor rights activist
Velma Swanston Howard (1868–1937), Swedish-American translator
Velma Huskey (née Roeth; 1917–1991), American pioneer in early computing and author of several important papers on the history of computing.
Velma Bronn Johnston (1912–1977), American animal rights activist
Velma Linford (1907–2002), American educator, author, and politician
Velma Caldwell Melville (1852–1924), American writer and poet
Velma Middleton (1917–1961), American jazz vocalist
Velma McBride Murry, American psychologist and sociologist
Velma Owusu-Bempah (née Crossland; born 1981), Ghanaian milliner
Velma Pollard (1937–2025), Jamaican poet and fiction writer
Velma S. Salabiye (1948–1996), American Navajo librarian and promoter of Native American librarianship
Velma Šarić (born 1979), Bosnian journalist and founder and president of the Post-Conflict Research Center
Velma Scantlebury (born 1955), Barbadian-born American transplant surgeon
Velma Wallace Rayness (1896–1977), American artist, author, and instructor
Velma Williams Smith (1927–2014), American country musician and guitarist
Velma Springstead (1906–1926), Canadian athlete for whom the Velma Springstead Trophy is named
Velma Veloria (born 1950), Filipino-American politician
Velma Wallis (born 1960), American novelist
Fictional characters
Velma Dinkley, a character in Scooby-Doo franchise
Velma (TV series), a 2023 streaming series featuring that character
Velma Kelly, fictional character in the musical and the 2002 film adaptation of Chicago
Velma Von Tussle, a character in the 1988 film Hairspray and its later adaptations