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Girl · Hungarian (18th-century literary coinage)
Etelka
Say it: EH-tel-kaw
Meaning
Coined by András Dugonics for his novel Etelka (1788), from Etele, the Hungarian form of Attila, with a feminine diminutive ending.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Created by Dugonics and fashionable in the 19th century, but rarely given today.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 5 babies given this name since 1888
- At its height in 1888, about 1 in 35,700 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.