Selah
Feminine
Selah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 15,187 girls against 207 boys since 1880.
Selah is one of the few words that English Bible translators simply refused to translate: it stands in the Psalms exactly as it stood in Hebrew, an instruction nobody could quite decode. Readers of the King James Version met it for centuries as a word on the page before anyone thought to give it to a daughter. Two open syllables, both ending in a vowel sound, and no consonant in it that anyone has to work for.
How old is the name Selah?
Selah first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Selah is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 15,000 people named Selah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Selah most popular?
Selah peaked in 2025, reaching #216 nationally. Today it ranks #216, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Selah appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From סֶלָה (selah), Hebrew Psalms to Selah
The story of Selah
Selah appears seventy-one times in the Book of Psalms and three times in Habakkuk, always as a standalone term rather than part of a sentence. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible tried to render it; the English translators behind the King James Version gave up and printed it as it was, which is why the word survives intact in English at all. Its life as a personal name is a recent development, and an American one, spreading largely through English-speaking Christian families who knew the word from the Psalms first. That newness is visible in who carries it: the great majority of American Selahs are children and young people.
Meaningscholars disagree
a Hebrew liturgical term from the Psalms; the sense is genuinely unsettled
Three readings compete among Hebrew scholars: a musical or performance direction — a pause, rest or interlude; a form of the root meaning 'to lift up', that is, to raise the voice or the instruments; and 'forever', which is how the Aramaic Targum rendered it. A separate Hebrew word, sela, means 'rock' or 'crag', and English speakers often associate the two, though they are spelled differently in Hebrew.
How the name formed
- סֶלָה, Hebrew Psalmsselah
- Selah, retained untranslated in English Bibles
- Selah, given name
Related forms: סֶלָה · Sela · Selah
Pronouncing Selah
SEE-lah
SEE-lah is the usual American reading. SAY-lah is also widely heard, and in Hebrew the stress falls on the second syllable, se-LAH. Because all three are defensible, expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Selah
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
- 1962
- Most girls named
- 20251,416 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #216reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +24.9%1,416 in 2025, from 1,134
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.
Selah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- סֶלָה in Hebrew — same name
- Sela in English — spelling variant
- Selah in Hebrew (romanized) — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Selahs among us
people named Selah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,135 born in 2025 was named Selah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Francine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Selah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Francine climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Francine's path sketches the road Selah is walking now.
Selah is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Selah is headed
Selah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Selah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Selah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, with no silent or unexpected letters, and short enough for a child to write early.
- Appears in the Psalms and stayed untranslated in English Bibles, so many readers recognize the word before they meet it as a name.
- A child named Selah is very unlikely to share the name with a classmate.
- Works in Hebrew and English alike, since the English spelling is the standard transliteration.
- SEE-lah and SAY-lah are both in real use, so the pronunciation will need correcting fairly often — a small, lifelong tax rather than a problem.
- The name is climbing steadily. It is rare now; by the time this child reaches school it may be noticeably less so.
- Anyone who knows the word knows it from scripture, and the name carries that association plainly. Some families want exactly that; others should know it comes attached.
- If the meaning matters to you, there is no single answer to give a curious child — the Hebrew term has resisted definition for a very long time.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Selah to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Selah? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Selah
Feminine · #216 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Selahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,000 people named Selah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Selah in 2025?
- Selah ranks #216 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,416 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Selah?
- About 1 in every 1,135 US girls born in 2025 was named Selah — 1,416 in all.
- Will my child share the name Selah with classmates?
- Selah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Selah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Saylor#217 · Dahlia#215 · Lennon#214 · Elianna#218 · River#219 · Ada#219 · Arabella#213 · Zara#212
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Selah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Selah and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle