Seldon
Masculine · “from a valley with willows”
The best book John Selden wrote he did not write. He was one of the great legal minds of his century, published enormous learned volumes nobody now reads, and is remembered for a small collection of his conversation that his secretary wrote down after dinner and published after he died.
How old is the name Seldon?
Seldon first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Seldon alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 300 people named Seldon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Seldon most popular?
Seldon peaked in 1887, reaching #752 nationally. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From an English place name about a valley to Seldon
The story of Seldon
The Table Talk is a few hundred short paragraphs of Selden saying what he actually thought, in plain English, about religion, law, marriage, the king and the clergy — and it is funnier and more useful than anything in his published works. He was a member of parliament, was imprisoned for it, defended the common law against royal prerogative, and read more languages than most scholars manage in a lifetime. The secretary sat at his table for twenty years taking notes, which is the only reason any of the conversation survives.
Meaningscholars disagree
from a valley with willows, most likely
The surname is English and topographic, and the elements are usually read as a willow or a hall plus the word for a valley. As an American first name it appears in the 1880s alongside a great many other English surnames moved to the front. The spelling with an o rather than an e is the commoner American form and does not indicate a different origin.
How the name formed
- an English place name about a valley
- the surname carried to America
- used as a first name from the 1880s
- a jurist's table talk published after his death
- out of ordinary use by the middle of the last century
Related forms: Selden · Sheldon
Pronouncing Seldon
SEL-dun
Two syllables, stress at the front. The second syllable has no identifiable vowel, which is why the record carries both spellings.
Nicknames for Seldon
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 192733 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #752reached in 1887
- Change vs 2000
- −25.0%6 in 2006, from 8
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.
Seldon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Selden in English — spelling variant
- Sheldon in English — related form
Seldons among us
people named Seldon are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Seldon sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is read correctly at sight and holds no difficulties.
- It has a real English place behind it and a serious namesake.
- It is genuinely unrepeated as a first name.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname and some people will treat it as one.
- Sheldon is far commoner and will be substituted regularly.
- It has been out of use for three generations.
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Seldon
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Seldons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Seldon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Seldon in 2025?
- Seldon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Seldon with classmates?
- Seldon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Seldon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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