Ophelia - Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity

Ophelia reentered the US Top 1000 in 2015 after more than 50 years off the charts, and rose more than 600 spots since then, with no signs of slowing down. Could Ophelia may be the next Olivia?

Ophelia is a beautiful name that has long been hampered by the stigma of Hamlet's tragic heroine—for whom Shakespeare seems to have invented the name—but more and more parents are beginning to put that association aside. There is also a gutsy Ophelia in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin, which seems to have had some influence on baby namers at the time.

Among the actresses who have played modern non-Shakespearean Ophelias are Jamie Lee Curtis and Blake Lively. The heroine of the film Pan's Labyrinth used the Spanish spelling, Ofelia.

Actress Patricia Neal and author Roald Dahl named one of their now grown daughters Ophelia, and more recently musician Dave Grohl named his baby girl Ophelia Saint.

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