Given name
Ophelia
“help”·“one who offers help to others”
Ophelia has a literary history that begins before Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Original GreekΟφηλία
Meaning & origin
What it means
Interpretations include “help” (Greek) and “one who offers help to others” (Greek). These may reflect different naming traditions.
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Greek.
How it developed
Probably from Italian Ofelia, from Ancient Greek ὠφέλειᾰ (“help, aid, succour”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
The Italian writer Jacopo Sannazzaro appears to have used Ophelia before Shakespeare adopted it for Hamlet. The proposed Greek connection with “help” belongs to that earlier literary formation; in Hamlet, Ophelia is Polonius’s daughter.
Ophelia through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 25,785
- 15 boys · 25,770 girls
- Most popular year
- 2024
- 1,223 babies
- 2025
- 1,183
- #264 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +54%
- Rising fast
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 1,183 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 264 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 54.0% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. In 2025, Texas had the largest reported state-level birth count for girls with this name (108). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 9,489 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ophelia’s family of names
In Filipino usage, Ophelia shares an earlier linguistic root with Ofelia. Ophelia has a related form in Ofilia. In English usage, Ophelia has a conventional equivalent in the Polish form Ofelia.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Ophelia has relatives in 10 languages. Lines run from its Ancient Greek roots to each of them.
7 related names in 10 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 12
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Ofeliavariant · Tagalog, Polish
- Ophiliavariant
- Ophelievariant
- Oveliavariant
- Ofiliavariant
- Ophellialikely variant
- Oféliavariant · Portuguese
- Ofeliahvariant
Show 4 moreShow fewer
Spellings & scripts 2
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Ophelia
- Ophelia LovibondEnglish actress (born 1986)
- Ophelia HayfordGhanaian politicianborn 1973
- Ophelia PastranaColombian-Mexican YouTuberborn 1982
- Ophelia CrosslandGhanaian fashion designer and businesswomanborn 1983
- Ophelia Hoff SaytumahLiberian politicianborn 2000
- Ophelia BensonAmerican writerborn 1948
- Ophélia KolbFrench actressborn 1982
- Ophelia DahlAmerican activist (born 1964)
Characters named Ophelia: Ophelia (Hamlet).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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