Sela
Feminine · “rock”
Sela is Hebrew for a rock or cliff, and it names the fortress city the Greeks renamed Petra — the same word in their own language.
How old is the name Sela?
Sela first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Sela alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,300 people named Sela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sela most popular?
Sela peaked in 2000, reaching #2034 nationally. Today it ranks #4661, 2,627 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From sela to Sela
The story of Sela
Sela was an Edomite fortress set among cliffs, and when Greek speakers arrived they translated the name rather than transliterating it — Petra means rock. So the famous carved city in Jordan carries a name that is a translation of its older one. Sela is also a Tongan name in wide use, and appears in American records from both sources.
Meaning
rock, crag
From Hebrew sela, a rock or cliff face. The Edomite stronghold called Sela in the Hebrew Bible is generally identified with the site the Greeks called Petra, which is simply the Greek for the same thing.
How the name formed
- sela
- Petra
Related forms: סלע · Petra · Sela
Pronouncing Sela
SEE-lah
Two syllables, first stressed. Hebrew gives SEH-lah.
Nicknames for Sela
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 200081 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2034reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −17.1%29 in 2025, from 35
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- סלע in Hebrew — transliteration
- Petra in Greek — related form
- Sela in Tongan — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Selas among us
people named Sela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was named Sela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sela
- #4661
- Sela on the 2025 chart
- #228
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sela went to 29 girls in 2025, but Selah and Seela are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 1,460, which makes it the 228th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,433 places above the chart.
- Selah1,416
- Sela29
- Seela15
About 1 girl in 1,101 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 55,423 for Sela itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Clifton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clifton climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clifton's path sketches the road Sela is walking now.
Sela sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sela is headed
Sela looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely striking translation history.
- Four letters and two syllables, about as easy to write as a name gets.
- Two unrelated traditions use it, which widens its reach.
- The first vowel differs between the Hebrew and American readings.
- Sela, Sella and Selah are all in use and get confused.
- Selah is a separate Hebrew word from the Psalms and often conflated with it.
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What they receive
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Sela
Feminine · #4661 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Selas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Sela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sela?
- Sela is one of 3 recorded spellings. Selah is the more common one — 1,416 births in 2025 against 29 for Sela.
- How popular is the name Sela in 2025?
- Sela ranks #4661 among US girl names in 2025, with 29 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sela?
- About 1 in every 55,423 US girls born in 2025 was named Sela — 29 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sela with classmates?
- Sela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ellenor#4661 · Roselie#4661 · Marni#4661 · Menucha#4661 · Infinity#4661 · Lilya#4661 · Railyn#4661 · Zada#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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