Head to head · Girls' names
Keira vs Selene
#621 vs #621 in 2025
Keira and Selene share the same spot on the 2025 charts (#621). The records cannot split them; sound and story will.
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
The tape is even: Keira and Selene each lead 2 measures of 6.
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: Keira —, Selene #4814 — Selene higher
- 1920s: Keira —, Selene #4420 — Selene higher
- 1930s: Keira —, Selene #3875 — Selene higher
- 1940s: Keira —, Selene #3585 — Selene higher
- 1950s: Keira —, Selene #3036 — Selene higher
- 1960s: Keira #4199, Selene #2087 — Selene higher
- 1970s: Keira #2432, Selene #1922 — Selene higher
- 1980s: Keira #1916, Selene #2243 — Keira higher
- 1990s: Keira #1288, Selene #1156 — Selene higher
- 2000s: Keira #449, Selene #1351 — Keira higher
- 2010s: Keira #257, Selene #1107 — Keira higher
- 2020s: Keira #545, Selene #703 — Keira higher
Selene stood higher in 8 of 12 decades; Keira has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Keira | Selene |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | — | #4814 |
| 1920s | — | #4420 |
| 1930s | — | #3875 |
| 1940s | — | #3585 |
| 1950s | — | #3036 |
| 1960s | #4199 | #2087 |
| 1970s | #2432 | #1922 |
| 1980s | #1916 | #2243 |
| 1990s | #1288 | #1156 |
| 2000s | #449 | #1351 |
| 2010s | #257 | #1107 |
| 2020s | #545 | #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
Keira
Dark, dark-haired
The root is the Irish adjective ciar, 'dark'. Keira is a phonetic English spelling of Ciara, the feminine of Ciarán. One caution: Keira is often filed alongside Kyra and Kira, which come from an unrelated Greek and Persian line meaning 'lord' or 'lady' — similar sound, different root.
ciar (Irish: dark) → Ciarán → Ciara → Kiera → Keira
How it traveled
The name begins with the Irish word ciar, 'dark', which gave the man's name Ciarán and its feminine counterpart Ciara. Ciara belonged to a seventh-century Irish saint, and the name stayed in Irish use for centuries before Irish naming came back into fashion across the English-speaking world in the twentieth century.
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
Keira
KEER-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The whole point of this spelling is that it produces KEER-uh on sight, where Ciara often does not.
- Kiki — The most common informal short form; used at home and among friends rather than on paper.
- Kei — A clipped one-syllable form, mostly spoken rather than written.
- Kay — Informal, and also a standalone given name of its own, more common among older generations.
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 Keira if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsKeira is stepping back from its peak
Choose Selene if you want…
- a name on the way upup 182 places on the charts in five years
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
Keira
Strengths
- The spelling does the pronunciation work: most English speakers read Keira correctly the first time, which Ciara cannot always claim.
- Short, two syllables, no silent letters — easy to say, easy to write once learned.
- It carries a documented Irish root going back to an old adjective, ciar, and a saint's name from the seventh century.
To consider
- Keira, Kiera, Kira, Kyra and Ciara all sound close or identical, so expect a lifetime of spelling it out — and of receiving mail addressed to one of the others.
- One very well-known actress carries this spelling, and for many people the name will call her to mind first. That association is friendly, but it is strong.
- Births cluster in a fairly narrow stretch of years, so the name may read as belonging to a particular moment rather than as an old classic — though it is uncommon enough now that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
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 Keira 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 Keira 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 Keira and Selene — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Keira or Selene — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Keira or Selene?
- They tie in 2025: Keira ranked #621 with 469 babies; Selene ranked #621 with 469 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Keira or Selene?
- Selene. Over the last five years Keira moved down 154 places; Selene moved up 182 places.
- Which is the older name, Keira or Selene?
- Keira entered the US charts in 1962; Selene entered the US charts in 1919. On the American record, Selene is the older name.
- How many people are named Keira and Selene?
- About 33,500 people named Keira 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 Keiras or Selenes in the classroom?
- Keira 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
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Keira, Selene and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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