Irma
Below 5 births
2025 SSA
About Irma
A Top 200 choice in the US from the late 1880s to the early 1930s, Irma has nevertheless fallen out of favor with modern parents, and doesn't look set for the sort of comeback that some of her vintage sisters have enjoyed in recent years. The devastating hurricane which hit the Caribbean Islands and the south-east coast of the US in 2017 has no doubt dealt its chances of revival a further blow.
Derived from the Germanic element irmin, it was originally used as a short form for other names containing that element, such as Irmhild. It was adopted by the English speaking world in the 19th century, and was used alongside spelling variant, Erma, perhaps due to its similarity to the timeless classic, Emma, which derives from the same root.
Once popular in France and Latvia, it is now out of the charts there too.
Does that meaning Irma is lost forever? Not at all. In the US at least, it was given to around 70 babies in a recent year, having recovered from its dip after the hurricane. Add the baby Ermas to this and around 100 babies received the name.
Irma is also given to boys.
Pronounced ER-muh.
As of October 2026, Irma ranked #8640 in US births in 1990 SSA, peaked at #2394 in 1938.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · boys | Births · boys | US rank · girls | Births · girls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | — | 0 | #2,626 | 67 |
| 2015 | — | 0 | #2,662 | 67 |
| 2016 | — | 0 | #2,526 | 71 |
| 2017 | — | 0 | #2,521 | 71 |
| 2018 | — | 0 | #3,130 | 52 |
| 2019 | — | 0 | #3,524 | 44 |
| 2020 | — | 0 | #2,509 | 69 |
| 2021 | — | 0 | #2,835 | 60 |
| 2022 | — | 0 | #2,538 | 70 |
| 2023 | — | 0 | #2,597 | 68 |
| 2024 | — | 0 | #2,609 | 67 |
| 2025 | — | 0 | #3,181 | 50 |
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Irma.
Irma on lists
Famous Irmas
- Irma (Pany)Girl
Cameroonian,born French singer,songwriter
- Irma AchtenGirl
Dutch filmmaker & writer
- Irma Santonil AdlawanGirl
Filipina film actress
- Irma Baltuttis (1920Girl
'58), German singer;
- Irma BlancoGirl
American radio personality from LA
- Irma BoomGirl
Dutch graphic designer
- Irma CarmonaGirl
Latin American voice actress
- Irma ChiltonGirl
Welsh children's author
- Irma Christenson (1915Girl
'93), Swedish actress
- Irma CordobaGirl
Argentine film actress
- Irma Capece MinutoloGirl
Italian former opera singer
- Irma DimasGirl
Miss El Salvador 2005
- Irma DorantesGirl
Mexican actress, ranchera singer & Pedro Infante's wife
- Irma ErixsonGirl
Swedish actress
- Irma GonzalezGirl
first Mexican,American female federal judge
- Irma Pamela HallGirl
American actress
- Irmã Dulce Pontes (born Maria Rita de Souza Pontes)Girl
blessed Brazilian nun
- Irma HuertaGirl
Mexican freestyle swimmer
- Irma Margarita "Maga" Nevares de RosselloGirl
wife of Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Rosselló
- Irma Schultz KellerGirl
Swedish actress & pop singer
- Irma KliauzaiteGirl
Lithuanian pianist
- Irma KurtiGirl
Albanian poet & writer
- Irma LozadaGirl
first female officer to die in line of duty in New York
- Irma MauryGirl
Peruvian actress
- Irma NewmarkGirl
American feminist
- Irma NioradzeGirl
Georgian ballerina
- Irma PaneGirl
Indonesian American pop singer
- Irma PatkosGirl
Hungarian actress
- Irma Yakovlevna RaushGirl
Russian actress
- Irma Starkloff RombauerGirl
American cookbook author
- Irma SanchezGirl
Mexican boxer
- Irma HiejtingGirl
Schuhmacher, German freestyle swimmer & medalist
- Irma SeikkulaGirl
Finnish actress
- Irma Consuelo Cielo SerranoGirl
Mexican singer
- Irma ThomasGirl
American singer
- Irma UrteagaGirl
Argentinian composer & pianist
- Irma WymanGirl
American early computer engineer & first CIO of Honeywell
- Irma CodyGirl
daughter of William ("Buffalo Bill")F. Cody
Irma in pop culture
- Irma BarlowGirl
main character of British soap "Coronation Street" (1964)
- Irma BuntGirl
villain in 1969 Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"
- Irma LanginsteinGirl
friend of April O'Neal in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Irma GobbGirl
Mr. Bean's girlfriend
- Irma LeopoldGirl
character from Joan Lindsay's novel "Picnic at Hanging Rock"
- "Irma JacksonGirl
" 1972 song by Merle Haggard
- "Irma La DouceGirl
" French play and film and its main character
- Irma LairGirl
Guardian of Water in the "W.I.T.C.H" series
- Irma PinceGirl
the librarian of Hogwarts in the "Harry Potter" series
- Irma PetersonGirl
main character in 1949 film "My Friend Irma"
- "Irma VepGirl
" 1996 French film and its main character
- Operation IrmaGirl
airlifts of injured civilians in Bosnia during the war
- Irma HotelGirl
landmark in Cody, Wyoming
- Hurricane IrmaGirl
a natural disaster that occurred in September 2017
- Irma the WaitressGirl
character in the Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis