Helga
Helga is a female name, used mainly in Scandinavia, German-speaking countries and the Low Countries. The name was in use in England before the Norman Conquest, but appears to have died out afterwards. It was re-introduced to English-speaking nations in the 20th century from Germany, the Netherlands, and the Nordic countries. Scandinavian male equivalent is Helge, or Helgi. Eastern Slavic names Olga and Oleg are derived from it.
Name days: Estonia - May 31, Hungary - October 3, Latvia - October 9, Sweden - November 21, Finland - May 31, Greece - 11 July
Helga was among the most popular names for girls in Germany from the 1920s to the 1950s.
People
All of last names listed in alphabetical order:A
- Helga Adler, East German historian and politician
- Helga de Alvear, German art collector
- Helga Amesberger, Austrian ethnologist and sociologist
- Helga Ancher, Danish painter
- Helga Anders, German-Austrian actress
- Helga Aradóttir, grand-daughter of executed Icelandic bishop Jón Arason
- Helga Arendt, West German sprinter
- Helga Axt, German chess player
B
- Helga Bachmann, Icelandic actress and director
- Helga Baum, German mathematician
- Helga Bergvall, Swedish author
- Helga Beyer, German resistance fighter
- Helga Bîrsan, Romanian gymnast
- Helga Braathen, Norwegian artistic gymnast
- Helga de la Brache, Swedish con artist
- Helga Brauer, East German singer
- Helga Brofeldt, Swedish film actress
C
- Helga Correia, Portuguese politician
- Helga von Cramm, German–Swiss painter, illustrator, and graphic artist
- Helga Cranston, German film editor
D
- Helga Dagsland, Norwegian nurse and organizational leader
- Helga Dancberga, Soviet then Latvian actress
- Helga Davis, New York-based multidisciplinary artist
- Helga Deen, Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim
- Helga Dernesch, Austrian soprano and mezzo soprano
- Helga Diederichsen, Mexican swimmer
- Helga Diercks-Norden, German journalist and feminist activist
- Helga Dietrich, German orchidologist and author
- Helga Dudzinski, German figure skater
E
- Helga Einsele, German criminologist, prison director, and high-profile prisons reformer
- Helga Eng, Norwegian psychologist and educationalist
- Helga Erhart, Austrian para-alpine skier
- Helga Estby, American suffragist
- Helga Exner, Czech-born Danish goldsmith
F
- Helga Fägerskiöld, Swedish baroness
- Helga Feddersen, German actress
- Helga Flatland, Norwegian novelist and children's writer
- Helga Foght, Danish textile artist
- Helga Forner, professor of singing
- Helga Franck, German stage and film actress
- Helga Frier, Danish actress
G
- Helga Gill, Women Suffrage Society Organizer
- Helga Gitmark, Norwegian politician
- Helga Glöckner-Neubert, German writer
- Helga Gnauer, Austrian fencer
- Helga Goebbels, eldest daughter of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and Magda Goebbels
- Helga Goetze, German artist, writer, and free love activist
- Helga Göring, German stage, television, and film actress
- Helga Görlin, Swedish soprano and voice teacher
- Helga Grebing, German historian and university professor
- Helga Guitton, German radio announcer
- Helga Gunerius Eriksen, Norwegian novelist and children's writer
H
- Helga Haase, Polish-born speed skater in East Germany
- Helga Hahnemann, East German multi-faceted stage performer and entertainer
- Helga Halldórsdóttir, Icelandic hurdler
- Helga Haller von Hallerstein, German countess and politician
- Helga Haugen, Norwegian politician
- Helga Haugland Byfuglien, Norwegian bishop
- Helga Helgesen, Norwegian domestic science teacher and politician
- Helga Hellebrand-Wiedermann, Austrian sprint canoer
- Helga Henning, German sprinter
- Helga Henselder-Barzel, German political scientist
- Helga Hernes, German-born Norwegian political scientist, diplomat, and politician
- Helga Hoffmann, German track and field athlete
- Helga Hörz, German Marxist philosopher and women's rights activist
- Helga Hošková-Weissová, Czech artist and Holocaust survivor
I
- Helga Nadire İnan Ertürk, Turkish-German footballer
J
- Helga Jensine Waabenø, Norwegian nurse and Lutheran missionary
- Helga Jónsdóttir, professor in nursing
K
- Helga Karlsen, Norwegian politician
- Helga Klein, German athlete
- Helga Kleiner, German politician
- Helga Knapp, former Austrian Paralympic alpine skier
- Helga Koch, German fencer
- Helga Kohl, Polish-born photographer based in Namibia
- Helga Königsdorf, German mathematician and author
- Helga Konrad, Austrian politician
- Helga W. Kraft, German-American professor
- Helga Krapf, Filipina actress
- Helga Krause, German film editor
- Helga Kreuter-Eggemann, German art historian
- Helga Kühn-Mengel, German politician
- Helga Kuhse, Australian philosopher
- Helga Kurm, Estonian pedagogical scientist
L
- Helga Labs, East German politician
- Helga Landauer, Russian director, writer, and poet, based in New York City
- Helga Larsen, Danish trade unionist and pioneering politician
- Helga van Leur, Dutch meteorologist
- Helga Lie, Norwegian politician
- Helga Lindner, German swimmer
- Helga Liné, Portuguese-Spanish film actress and circus acrobat
- Helga Livytska, Ukrainian humanitarian and public figure
- Helga Lopez, German politician
- Helga Luber, former East German slalom canoeist
- Helga Lütten, German former professional tennis player
M
- Helga Martin, German film actress
- Helga Matschkur, German gymnast
- Helga Mees, German fencer
- Helga Moddansdóttir, Haakon Paulsson’s mistress
- Helga Molander, German actress
- Helga Moreira, Portuguese poet
- Helga de la Motte-Haber, German musicologist
- Helga Mucke-Wittbrodt, German physician
- Helga Mühlberg-Ulze, East German sprint canoeist
- Helga Müller, German luger
N
- Helga Németh, Hungarian handball player
- Helga Neuner, German actress
- Helga Newmark, first female Holocaust survivor ordained as a rabbi
- Helga Niemann, German former swimmer
- Helga Niessen Masthoff, retired West German tennis player
- Helga Nõu, Estonian writer
- Helga M. Novak, German-Icelandic writer
- Helga Nowotny, Austrian university professor emeritus
O-Ö
- Helga Offen, German volleyball player
- Helga Margrét Ögmundsdóttir, Icelandic former professor
P
- Helga Pakasaar, Canada-based contemporary art curator and writer
- Helga Paris, German photographer
- Helga Pedersen, several people
- Helga Pichler, Italian luger
- Helga Pilarczyk, German operatic soprano
- Helga Plumb, Austrian-born Canadian architect
- Helga Pogatschar, German composer
R
- Helga E. Rafelski, German particle physicist
- Helga Radtke, German track and field athlete
- Helga Ramstad, Norwegian politician
- Helga Richter, retired German rower
- Helga Marie Ring Reusch, Norwegian painter
- Helga Ruebsamen, Dutch writer
- Helga Rullestad, Norwegian politician
- Helga Rut Guðmundsdóttir, Icelandic professor of music education
S
- Helga Salvesen, Norwegian physician and professor of medicine
- Helga Schauerte-Maubouet, German-French organist, writer, and music editor
- Helga Schmid, German diplomat
- Helga Schmidt-Neuber, German swimmer
- Helga Schneider, Italian writer of German origin
- Helga Schubert, German psychologist and author
- Helga Schuchardt, German politician
- Helga Schultze, German female tennis player
- Helga Seibert, judge at Bundesverfassungsgericht
- Helga Seidler, German athlete and Olympic medalist
- Helga Sigurðardóttir, Icelandic swimmer
- Helga María Sista, Argentine alpine skier
- Helga Slessarev, scholar of German literature
- Helga Sonck-Majewski, Finnish artist
- Helga Stene, Norwegian educator, feminist, and resistance member
- Helga Stentzel, Russian-born visual artist
- Helga Stephenson, Canadian media executive
- Helga Steudel, German motorcyclist and car racer
- Helga Stevens, Belgian politician
- Helga Stroh, German fencer
T
- Helga Tawil-Souri, Palestinian-American media scholar and documentary filmmaker
- Helga Testorf, subject of Andrew Wyeth's famous paintings
- Helga Thaler Ausserhofer, Italian politician
- Helga Thomas, Swedish film actress
- Helle Thorning-Schmidt, 41st Prime Minister of Denmark
- Helga Timm, German politician
- Helga Charlotte Tolle, German actress, singer and dancer
- Helga Margrét Þorsteinsdóttir, Icelandic heptathlete
- Helga Trüpel, German politician
V
- Helga Vala Helgadóttir, Icelandic politician
- Helga Varden, Norwegian-American philosopher
- Helga María Vilhjálmsdóttir, Icelandic alpine skier
- Helga Vlahović, Croatian journalist, producer, and television personality
W
- Helga Wagner, German former swimmer
- Helga Wanglie, elderly woman in a persistent vegetative state
- Helga Weippert, German Old Testament scholar
- Helga Weisz, Austrian industrial ecologist, climate scientist, and professor of industrial ecology and climate change
Z
- Helga Zepp-LaRouche, German journalist and politician
- Helga Zimmermann, German former swimmer
- Helga Josephine Zinnbauer, Australian community worker and librarian
- Helga Zoega, Icelandic professor of public health
- Helga Zöllner, Hungarian figure skater
Fictional characters
- Helga, wife of Hägar in the comic strip Hägar the Horrible
- Helga, a Dutch enemy character in the fighting game Human Killing Machine
- Helga the Fair, a character in Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu
- Helga, a character in the game Suikoden IV
- Helga, lead character in the 1967 sex education film Helga – Vom Werden des menschlichen Lebens
- Helga, wife of Floki, character in the historical series Vikings
- Helga Beimer, a character in the soap opera Lindenstraße
- Helga von Bubble, a character in the Toy Story Toons short, Partysaurus Rex
- Helga Gallimard, wife of Rene Gallimard in the play M Butterfly
- Helga Geerhart, a character in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
- Helga Hufflepuff, founder of Hogwarts' Hufflepuff house in the Harry Potter books
- Helga Jace, a character in DC Comics
- Helga Pataki, a character in the Nickelodeon animated TV series Hey Arnold!
- Helga Phugly, a character in the adult animated sitcom The Oblongs
- Helga Rasmussen, a founder of the Black Armory in the video game Destiny 2
- Helga Sinclair, a character in the 2001 Disney animated feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
- Helga Von Guggen, an antagonist in the Franco-Canadian animated TV series ''Totally Spies''
Other
- Helga, one of the two phantom torsos carried by the Artemis 1 mission