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The first name 
Ophelia

Ophelia is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Ophelia – popular and common in the US

The name Ophelia isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Ophelia ranks 469. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 4 were named Ophelia. In the entire USA, approximately 15,968 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Ophelia. That is 0.00 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Ophelia

What does the name 
Ophelia mean?

The name Ophelia derived from the Greek word ‘opheleia’ meaning ‘help, advantage’. It was a rare name in ancient Greece, rediscovered by poets and playwrights in the 16th century.

Most people associate ... this name with the character from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' (1600). It was popular in the 19th century and is on the rise again since the 2010s.

Ophelia -
at home in every state from California to New York

The name Ophelia may not be in the top rankings of the most popular girls’ names, but it is one of the few female given names, along with only 536 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Ophelia is apparently especially popular in Mississippi. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular women’s names here either, one in 2,371 women in Mississippi is called Ophelia. In total, that’s 812 women who feel addressed when the name Ophelia is shouted loudly across Mississippi and who ensure that their name makes it to #446 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common female names in this nice state. If you asked all women in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Ophelia as the answer a total of 15,968 times. This places Ophelia at #974 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular women’s names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living women across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Ophelia as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Ophelia has 7 letters 
and begins with an O

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter O is quite rare as a first letter for girls' names: only 1.0% of all common girls' names in the US begin with an O. By the way, the most common first letters of girls' names are A, S and M, while U, X and Q are the least common initials of girls' names.

With seven letters, the name Ophelia has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Therefore: As 1.0% of all girls' names begin with an O, this initial letter is significantly less common than the other letters on average. However, individual girls' names with O are really popular, the most common currently being Olivia.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Ophelia

If your name is Ophelia and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Ophelia

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Ophelia, you can simply say:

Orange

Pig

Hat

Elephant

Lion

Igloo

Apple

This is how the name Ophelia is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Ophelia in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Ophelia

Ophelia

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Ophelia

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Ophelia is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

O
P
H
E
L
I
A

Have you ever waved the name Ophelia

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

O
P
H
E
L
I
A

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Ophelia sounds like this: