Entry № 7823 · Greek origin

Ophelia Ophelia — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ oh-FEEL-yah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Greek
Meaning
"Help, aid"
Syllables
4
First recorded
1480 (literary)

A name that means "help, aid".

Ophelia comes from the Greek ōphelos, meaning "help" or "aid." The name was apparently coined by the Italian poet Jacopo Sannazaro in his 1480 pastoral romance Arcadia.

Ophelia has been rising rapidly in the 2010s. Today it sits in the U.S.

Help, aid — a Greek name.

The name in its native script.

Ὠφελία
Transliteration
Ōphelía
Pronunciation
/ oʊˈfiː.li.ə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Ophelia stands.

Ophelia does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Ophelias before her.

Real people
Ophelia Lovibond
British actress.
born 1986
In fiction
Ophelia
Hamlet's love in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
1600 play
Ophelia
Character in Sally Rooney's Normal People.
2018 novel

Names connected to Ophelia.

The number behind Ophelia.

3

The Communicator

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Ophelia reduce to 3, The Communicator. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.