Gender Feminine
Scripts Ὠφελία(Ancient Greek)
Pronounced Pron. o-FEEL-ee-ə(English) o-FEEL-yə(English)  [key·IPA]

Meaning & History

Derived from Greek ὠφέλεια (opheleia) meaning "help, advantage". This was a rare ancient Greek name, which was either rediscovered or recreated by the 15th-century poet Jacopo Sannazaro for a character in his poem Arcadia. It was borrowed by Shakespeare for his play Hamlet (1600), in which it belongs to the daughter of Polonius and the potential love interest of Hamlet. She eventually goes insane and drowns herself after Hamlet kills her father. In spite of this negative association, the name has been in use since the 19th century.

Related Names

Other Languages & CulturesOfeliya(Azerbaijani) Ofeliya(Bulgarian) Ophélie(French) Ofelia(Italian) Ofélia(Portuguese) Ofeliya(Russian) Ofelia(Spanish) Ofeliya(Ukrainian)
User SubmissionOphélia

Popularity

People think this name is

classic   formal   upper class   natural   wholesome   delicate   refined   strange   complex   serious  

Images

Depiction of Shakespeare's Ophelia by John William Waterhouse (1894)Depiction of Shakespeare's Ophelia by John William Waterhouse (1894)

Categories

Entry updated June 9, 2023