Althea is from the Greek *althaino* ("to heal") — the mythological queen of Calydon in Homer's *Iliad* and the botanical name of the marsh mallow plant. **A top-500 US baby name in the early 20th century**. **Althea Gibson (1927-2003)** — **American tennis player; **the first African American to win a Grand Slam singles title — the 1956 French Championships — and the first to win Wimbledon (1957, 1958) and the US Championships (1957, 1958)**; defeated Darlene Hard in the 1957 Wimbledon final, becoming the first Black athlete to receive the trophy from Queen Elizabeth II personally; Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year (1957, 1958)**. **Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (1971); honored with a US Open statue (2019)**. **After her tennis career, Gibson became the first Black woman on the LPGA tour (1964)**. **Princess Althea of Calydon** in Greek mythology — wife of Oeneus, mother of Meleager; her tragic fate after the Calydonian boar hunt is dramatized in Homer's *Iliad* Book 9 and Swinburne's *Atalanta in Calydon* (1865). **Althea Flynt** (1953-1987) — wife of *Hustler* publisher Larry Flynt; portrayed by Courtney Love in *The People vs. Larry Flynt* (1996), earning Love a Golden Globe nomination.
Featured throughout sports and classical literature.
Althea reduces to nine — the number of first Grand Slam.