Tilda as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Tilda

What is the meaning of the name Tilda ?

The baby name Tilda is a girl name , 2 syllables long and is pronounced TIL-də.

Tilda is Estonian, Germanic, Old High German, Spanish in Origin.

Tilda is a clipped form of Matilda, whose earliest recorded forms include Old High German Mahthildis and Latinized Mathildis. The root is West Germanic, represented in Old High German by maht, might, power, and hiltja or hild, battle. Its literal sense is battle-mighty or mighty in battle, with the initial Ma- lost in the short form and -da retained from Matilda’s second syllable.

As an independent given name, Tilda appears especially in northern Europe, including Swedish and Estonian use, and also functions as a Spanish diminutive of Matilde. Matilda spread through medieval aristocratic naming in England, Germany, France, and Italy; Maud became its usual medieval English shape. Literary examples include Dickens’s Tilda Price in Nicholas Nickleby, while the best-known modern bearer is the British actress Tilda Swinton. In the United States it has remained uncommon, with early-twentieth-century use followed by low modern registration.