Head to head · Girls' names
Selene vs Siena
#621 vs #610 in 2025
Siena is a whisker ahead (#610 vs #621 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Siena is holding its place on the charts, 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, Siena 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: Selene #4814, Siena — — Selene higher
- 1920s: Selene #4420, Siena — — Selene higher
- 1930s: Selene #3875, Siena — — Selene higher
- 1940s: Selene #3585, Siena — — Selene higher
- 1950s: Selene #3036, Siena — — Selene higher
- 1960s: Selene #2087, Siena #6539 — Selene higher
- 1970s: Selene #1922, Siena #8423 — Selene higher
- 1980s: Selene #2243, Siena #7257 — Selene higher
- 1990s: Selene #1156, Siena #2536 — Selene higher
- 2000s: Selene #1351, Siena #992 — Siena higher
- 2010s: Selene #1107, Siena #638 — Siena higher
- 2020s: Selene #703, Siena #646 — Siena higher
Selene stood higher in 9 of 12 decades; Siena has held the lead since the 2000s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Selene | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #4814 | — |
| 1920s | #4420 | — |
| 1930s | #3875 | — |
| 1940s | #3585 | — |
| 1950s | #3036 | — |
| 1960s | #2087 | #6539 |
| 1970s | #1922 | #8423 |
| 1980s | #2243 | #7257 |
| 1990s | #1156 | #2536 |
| 2000s | #1351 | #992 |
| 2010s | #1107 | #638 |
| 2020s | #703 | #646 |
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
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.
Siena
from Siena, the city in Tuscany
What the city's own name means is a separate and unsettled question: it has been linked to the Etruscan family name Saina and to the Roman colony called Saena Julia, and neither reading has won. The English word sienna for the reddish-brown pigment comes from terra di Siena, earth of Siena.
Saena Julia → Siena → Sienna
How it traveled
Siena is the Italian spelling of the Tuscan city, a Roman settlement that grew into one of medieval Europe's great banking and painting centers and still runs its Palio horse race around the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo. Its clay-rich earth was dug, ground and sold to painters across Europe, which is how the city's name entered English as a color rather than as a name for a person.
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
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.
Siena
see-EN-uh
In Italian the first syllable glides into one sound, closer to SYEH-nah. In American English the three-syllable see-EN-uh is standard; some readers try SEE-nuh on first sight, which usually needs one gentle correction.
- Sia — The most natural short form; also used on its own as a given name and as a stage name, so it reads as a full name to many people.
- Sisi — Affectionate, family-and-close-friends register rather than anything you would write on a form.
- Si — Very informal and clipped; shared with Simon and Sian, so it rarely stands alone.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Selene if you want…
- a name fewer children share#621 in 2025 — selene will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 182 places on the charts in five years
Choose Siena if you want…
- a name most people already know#610 in 2025, 479 babies that year
- a name holding steadySiena is holding its place on the charts
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
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.
Siena
Strengths
- Already familiar in English as a color word, so most people can spell some version of it after hearing it once.
- Pronounced almost identically in Italian, Spanish and English — it crosses borders without being reshaped.
- Ties to a real, well-documented place with a thousand years of history behind it, rather than to a coined spelling.
To consider
- Sienna, with two n's, is the more common English spelling. Expect a lifetime of small corrections, and choose knowing that written forms will often come back doubled.
- The Toyota Sienna has been on American roads for decades. It is a mild, passing association rather than a real problem, but it exists.
- The name's use is genuinely recent, so there are few adult or elderly bearers to point to. A child named Siena will likely be the one who defines it for the people around her.
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 Selene and Siena 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 Selene and Siena?
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 Selene and Siena — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Selene or Siena — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Selene or Siena?
- Siena, in 2025: Siena ranked #610 with 479 babies; Selene ranked #621 with 469 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Selene or Siena?
- Selene. Over the last five years Selene moved up 182 places; Siena moved up 28 places.
- Which is the older name, Selene or Siena?
- Selene entered the US charts in 1919; Siena entered the US charts in 1965. On the American record, Selene is the older name.
- How many people are named Selene and Siena?
- About 9,500 people named Selene are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 11,000 people named Siena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Selenes or Sienas in the classroom?
- Selene will almost certainly be the only one in school. Siena 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 Selene, Siena and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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