Variant of Thelma, coined by Marie Corelli in 1887, possibly from Greek 'thelema' meaning 'will.'
Telma is a variant of Thelma, a name with an unusually specific and traceable literary origin. The British author Marie Corelli — one of the most widely read novelists of the Victorian era — appears to have coined or substantially popularized Thelma in her 1887 novel Thelma: A Society Novel, in which the heroine is a luminously beautiful Norwegian woman of almost supernatural virtue who marries an English aristocrat. Corelli may have drawn on the Greek thelema, meaning "will" or "volition," lending the name a sense of purposeful agency.
The novel was a sensation, and the name it carried spread rapidly through the English-speaking world. Thelma — and its variant Telma, common in Portuguese, Spanish, and some Slavic naming traditions — gained further cultural momentum when Thelma became a fixture in mid-century popular culture, from the comedy duo Thelma and Louise (whose 1991 film made the name synonymous with liberation and rebellion) to countless radio and television characters. In Brazil and Portugal, Telma without the h became the standard form, and it has been a quietly steady presence there for much of the twentieth century.
The Telma spelling carries a slightly more international, Romance-language flavor than the English Thelma, making it appealing to parents with Iberian, Latin American, or Eastern European heritage who want to honor a familiar sound in its native orthographic form. Both versions share the underlying sense of feminine will and self-determination that Corelli embedded in her original creation — a legacy that gives the name unexpected philosophical depth.