Meaning of the nameIrma

Irma is a female Germanic name, a German short form of names beginning with irmin, 'whole, great', related to Emma.

Meaning

“whole, great”

Source: Behind the Name: Irma · Wiktionary: Irma (verbetes em English and German)

People (2022): 15,161
Rank in Brazil: #1,282
Median age: 69 years
2010 Census: 21,975; people

Irma in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Irma, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1950s (4,082 people).

15,084 women 77 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Irma is most common

States with the highest share of people named Irma in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
São Paulo	4,023	0.009%
Rio Grande do Sul	3,489	0.032%
Santa Catarina	2,440	0.032%
Paraná	1,878	0.016%
Minas Gerais	876	0.004%
Rio de Janeiro	437	0.003%
Espírito Santo	316	0.008%
Mato Grosso do Sul	311	0.011%
Mato Grosso	239	0.007%
Bahia	213	0.002%
Goiás	185	0.003%
Rondônia	130	0.008%
Pernambuco	89	0.001%
Distrito Federal	82	0.003%
Pará	77	0.001%
Ceará	68	0.001%
Amazonas	53	0.001%
Rio Grande do Norte	47	0.001%
Maranhão	36	0.001%
Piauí	32	0.001%
Paraíba	27	0.001%
Sergipe	26	0.001%
Tocantins	25	0.002%
Alagoas	22	0.001%
Acre	20	0.002%
Roraima	17	0.003%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Irma

Behind the Name explains Irma as a German short form of names beginning with the Germanic element irmin, 'whole, great', and relates it to Emma. Wiktionary gives the same origin, with the element irm(en)-, erm(en)-, 'whole', from Proto-Germanic *ermunaz, and says the name became popular through German fiction of the nineteenth century. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 15,161 people named Irma, with a median age of 69; the name is almost always female, had the most records among those born in the 1950s, and proportionally it is most common in Rio Grande do Sul.

Sources

Behind the Name: Irma · behindthename.com · meaning
Wiktionary: Irma (verbetes em English and German) · en.wiktionary.org · meaning

Questions about the name Irma

What does the name Irma mean?

Irma means “whole, great”, according to Behind the Name and Wiktionary.

How many people are named Irma in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 15,161 people with the first name Irma, which ranks it number 1,282 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1950s.

Is Irma a boy's or a girl's name?

Irma is a female name: in the 2022 Census, 15,084 women and 77 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Irma?

Irma is a name of Germanic origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Irma most common?

Proportionally, in Rio Grande do Sul: 0.032% of the state's population is named Irma (3,489 people), according to the 2022 Census.

More names of Germanic origin

See all

Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Irma with a source. See the methodology.