Helga

HEL-ga, HEL-yah
Scandinavian
"holy, blessed"

Helga Origin and Meaning

The name Helga is a girl's name of Scandinavian origin meaning "holy, blessed".

A traditional Nordic name, Helga was extremely popular throughout Scandinavia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In Germany, it was a Top 10 pick from 1924 to 1943. And it still ranks in the Icelandic Top 50 today.

In the English-speaking world, Helga has been associated with a series of unfortunate characters in popular culture, from the wife of Hägar the Horrible in the comic strip of the same name, to Helga Pataki from the kids' TV show Hey Arnold!. But more recent, more positive Helgas – like Helga Hufflepuff, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, and a character in the drama series Vikings – could redeem the name.

Helga's Russian cognate, Olga, is a classic there, and still ranks in the Russian Top 50 today.

# 986 in the US

Helga Rank in US Top 1000

Helga Popularity

Famous People Named Helga

  • Helga Niessen Masthoff
    German tennis player
  • Helga Liné (born Helga Lina Stern)
    German,born Portuguese,Spanish actress
  • Helga Mathilde Meyer
    German opera singer and mother of Sandra Bullock
  • Helga Frier
    Danish actress
  • Helga Krapf
    German,Filipina actress
  • Helga Hörz
    German philosopher
  • Helga Pedersen
    Norwegian politician
  • Helga Zepp
    LaRouche, German political activist; wife of Lyndon LaRouche
  • Helga Seidler
    German runner
  • Helga Feddersen
    German actress
  • Helga Dernesch
    Austrian operatic soprano
  • Helga Anders
    Austrian actress
  • Helga Testorf
    German model for painter Andrew Wyeth
  • Helga Erika Ivertowski Hörz
    German philosopher and feminist
  • Helga Haase
    German speedskater
  • Helga von Cramm
    German,Swiss painter
  • Sharon Helga Corr
    Irish singer of band The Corrs

Helga in Pop Culture

  • Helga Hufflepuff
    character in the Harry Potter series
  • Helga Geraldine Pataki
    character on animated series "Hey Arnold!"
  • Helga Phugly
    character in animated series "The Oblongs"
  • Helga
    a character in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Marsh King's Daughter"
  • Helga
    wife of Hägar the Horrible in the newspaper comic strip
  • Helga Sinclair
    mercenary in Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  • Helga
    character in video game Suikoden IV
  • Helga Geerhart
    character on British TV series 'Allo 'Allo!
  • Helga Von Guggen
    character in animated television series Totally Spies
  • Helga
    character in fighting video game Human Killing Machine
  • Helga von Hinten
    character in Taboo (TV Series), played by Franka Potente