Head to head · Girls' names
Amiyah vs Selene
#620 vs #621 in 2025
Amiyah is a whisker ahead (#620 vs #621 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Amiyah is stepping back from its peak, Selene is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Selene has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Amiyah leads 4 measures of 6; Selene leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Amiyah —, Selene #4814 — Selene higher
- 1920s: Amiyah —, Selene #4420 — Selene higher
- 1930s: Amiyah —, Selene #3875 — Selene higher
- 1940s: Amiyah —, Selene #3585 — Selene higher
- 1950s: Amiyah —, Selene #3036 — Selene higher
- 1960s: Amiyah —, Selene #2087 — Selene higher
- 1970s: Amiyah —, Selene #1922 — Selene higher
- 1980s: Amiyah —, Selene #2243 — Selene higher
- 1990s: Amiyah #8457, Selene #1156 — Selene higher
- 2000s: Amiyah #846, Selene #1351 — Amiyah higher
- 2010s: Amiyah #318, Selene #1107 — Amiyah higher
- 2020s: Amiyah #450, Selene #703 — Amiyah higher
Selene stood higher in 9 of 12 decades; Amiyah has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Amiyah | Selene |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | — | #4814 |
| 1920s | — | #4420 |
| 1930s | — | #3875 |
| 1940s | — | #3585 |
| 1950s | — | #3036 |
| 1960s | — | #2087 |
| 1970s | — | #1922 |
| 1980s | — | #2243 |
| 1990s | #8457 | #1156 |
| 2000s | #846 | #1351 |
| 2010s | #318 | #1107 |
| 2020s | #450 | #703 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Amiyah
Not established
No meaning is established for this spelling. What is documented is the company it keeps: near-identical names exist independently elsewhere — Amaya, a Basque surname and the name of a mountain in northern Spain, and Amiya, used as a given name in Bengali. Amiyah as it is written in the United States is a modern spelling, and no one has traced a line from it to either.
Our story of Amiyah — where the record runs out
Some names arrive without papers. Amiyah is one of them: it shows up in American records only in recent decades, with no source language to point to and no first bearer to name.
Selene
Moon
Greek selēnē is simply the ordinary word for the moon; it is connected to selas, 'light, brightness'.
Σελήνη (Selēnē) → Selene → Selena → Selina
How it traveled
Selene comes straight from Greek σελήνη, the everyday word for the moon, which also served as the name of the Titan goddess of the moon — sister of Helios the sun and Eos the dawn in Hesiod's account of the older gods. Latin writers borrowed the name unchanged, and it traveled with classical learning into the modern languages of Europe, where the related forms Selena and Selina took hold alongside it.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Amiyah
uh-MY-uh
The common American pronunciation stresses the second syllable with a long i. A second reading, uh-MEE-uh, is also in use, so expect to state your preference at introductions.
- Mia — Sits inside the full name and is a long-established given name in its own right, which makes it an easy everyday short form.
- Ami — Informal, taken from the first two syllables; also spelled Amie or Amy.
- Miya — Informal, drawn from the tail of the name; stands alone as a given name in several languages.
- Ami-Ami — A doubled family nickname of the kind vowel-heavy names attract in early childhood.
Selene
suh-LEEN
Two pronunciations are both in real use: the anglicized two-syllable suh-LEEN, and the classical three-syllable seh-LEE-nee, closer to the Greek. Spanish speakers generally say seh-LEH-neh. Expect to state your preference more than once.
- Lena — The most portable short form, and a long-established given name in its own right across English, German and Scandinavian use.
- Sel — Informal, family-and-friends level; almost never written on anything official.
- Sele — Heard in Spanish-speaking families, where the vowels of the full name stay closer to the surface.
- Selly — Affectionate and mostly used with young children.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Amiyah if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsAmiyah is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itAmiyah runs 3 syllables, Selene 2
Choose Selene if you want…
- a name on the way upup 182 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesSelene is 2 syllables to Amiyah's 3
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Amiyah
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds for most American readers — no silent letters and no unexpected consonants.
- Carries Mia inside it, giving an instant short form that needs no explanation.
- Rare enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate, while still sounding entirely familiar.
To consider
- The competing spellings are the real cost: Amiya, Amiah, Amya and Amaya all exist alongside it, so the name will be spelled aloud often and misspelled sometimes.
- Two pronunciations circulate, uh-MY-uh and uh-MEE-uh, and correcting people will be a small lifelong habit.
- There is no documented meaning or ancestral line here, so if part of what you want from a name is a heritage story to hand on, this one gives you sound rather than history.
Selene
Strengths
- The meaning is settled and easy to explain in one word — moon — which is rarer than parents expect.
- Spelled the same in English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, so it crosses borders without adjustment.
- An unbroken presence in American records for more than a century, so it is familiar without being common.
To consider
- The two-syllable and three-syllable pronunciations both have real currency, so she will spend some of her life correcting people — or, more likely, answering to both.
- Selena, Selina and Céline are close enough that mail and roll calls will sometimes land on the wrong one. Céline is actually a separate name from a Latin root, but few people know that.
- It is climbing rather than fading, so it may be noticeably more familiar by the time she reaches school than it is now — still far from crowded, but less of a solo act than the record suggests.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Amiyah and Selene in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Amiyah and Selene?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Amiyah and Selene — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Amiyah or Selene — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Amiyah or Selene?
- Amiyah, in 2025: Amiyah ranked #620 with 471 babies; Selene ranked #621 with 469 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Amiyah or Selene?
- Selene. Over the last five years Amiyah moved down 302 places; Selene moved up 182 places.
- Which is the older name, Amiyah or Selene?
- Amiyah entered the US charts in 1994; Selene entered the US charts in 1919. On the American record, Selene is the older name.
- How many people are named Amiyah and Selene?
- About 18,500 people named Amiyah are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 9,500 people named Selene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Amiyahs or Selenes in the classroom?
- Amiyah will almost certainly be the only one in school. Selene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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