[3] [4] It was among many names taken from the Bible that were used by Puritans in the American colonial era.

Talitha Cumi Elderkin Stiles, a schoolteacher, born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1779, was one of only three original settlers of Cleveland who stayed there over the first winter of 1796–1797 when, attended by Seneca Native American women, she gave birth to Charles Stiles, the first white child born in the Western Reserve.

[5][6][7] Six decades later, eleven-year-old Talitha Dunlap was among the between 120 and 140 men, women and children who were killed during the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre.

[12] In Brazil, Talita (or Talitha/Thalita) was the 100th most common name for newborn girls in 2009.

The names of the stars are derived from the Arabic word for 'third' in the phrase القفزة الثالثة (al-qafzah al-thālithah) meaning 'The third leap [of the gazelle]', referring to an Arabic story about a startled gazelle which leapt three times to different points in the constellation.