Selina
Feminine · “Either "moon" or "heavenly”
Selina has been written in English since at least the seventeenth century, and it arrives with two of the oldest images in naming behind it: the moon and the sky. It sits in a whole family of near-twins — Selena, Celina, Céline, Selene — which is why it sounds instantly familiar in the mouth even to someone meeting it for the first time. Three syllables, all soft consonants, and a landing on the same open ending that Amelia and Julia share.
How old is the name Selina?
Selina was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Selina alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 17,500 people named Selina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Selina most popular?
Selina peaked in 1995, reaching #371 nationally. Today it ranks #1272, 901 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Selina appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Selene to Selina
The story of Selina
The name reaches English along two roads that had already met: the Greek Selene, the moon, and the Latin family around caelum, the sky, which produced Caelina, Celina and eventually Céline. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Selina was in steady use among English families, most visibly with Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, the eighteenth-century patron of early Methodist preachers. Jane Austen gave the name to a minor character in Emma — Mrs Elton's much-invoked sister Selina — which tells you it read as respectable and unremarkable in Regency England. It traveled to America with English speakers and has been quietly present in the records ever since, with a second life in German-speaking Europe, where the same spelling took hold strongly in recent decades.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "moon" or "heavenly, of the sky"
Two serious lines compete, and both are old. One traces the name to Greek Selene, the moon, which also stands behind Selena and Selene. The other runs through Latin caelum, "sky, heaven," by way of Caelina and Celina — the route that gives French Céline. Because the spellings blurred into one another centuries ago, no single reading can claim the name outright.
How the name formed
- Selene
- Selena
- Selina
Related forms: Selena · Céline · Celina · Selina · Selene · Selini
Pronouncing Selina
suh-LEE-nuh
That is the usual American reading. In British and Irish use you will also hear SEL-in-uh, and, less often, suh-LY-nuh — all three are legitimate, so it is worth deciding which one is yours and saying it first when you introduce her.
Nicknames for Selina
High
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1993496 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #371reached in 1995
- Change vs 2022
- +8.0%176 in 2025, from 163
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.
Selina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Selena in Spanish — spelling variant
- Céline in French — related form
- Celina in Polish, Portuguese — spelling variant
- Selina in German — same name
- Selene in Italian — related form
- Selini in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Selinas among us
people named Selina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,132 born in 2025 was named Selina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Selina
- #1272
- Selina on the 2025 chart
- #515
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Selina went to 176 girls in 2025, but Celina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 505, which makes it the 515th most-given girls’ name of the year — 757 places above the chart.
- Celina329
- Selina176
About 1 girl in 3,183 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,132 for Selina 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 Melva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Selina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Melva climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Melva's path sketches the road Selina is walking now.
Selina 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 Selina is headed
Selina should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Selina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Selina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Long unbroken record in English, in continuous use since the seventeenth century and never out of the records since American statistics began.
- Ready-made short forms — Lina, Lena, Sel — that already stand on their own, so there is no need to invent one.
- Works across languages with only small changes: Selena in Spanish, Céline in French, Celina in Polish, and the identical spelling in German.
- Familiar without being everywhere: nearly everyone recognizes the shape of the name, while a Selina is unlikely to share a classroom with another.
- The lookalikes are the real issue. Selena, Celina, Selene and Céline all sound close enough that you should expect to spell it out, and to see Selena come back on forms and cards.
- Three accepted pronunciations — suh-LEE-nuh, SEL-in-uh, suh-LY-nuh — mean the same person may be greeted three different ways over a lifetime, especially when traveling.
- Selina Kyle is Catwoman's name in the comics and films, which some children will find delightful and others will hear about more often than they'd like.
- The name is strongest among adults now in their thirties, so a child would likely be the youngest Selina in most rooms for a while — pleasant for some families, worth knowing for all.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Selina to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Selina
Feminine · #1272 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Selinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,500 people named Selina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Selina?
- Selina is one of 2 recorded spellings. Celina is the more common one — 329 births in 2025 against 176 for Selina.
- How popular is the name Selina in 2025?
- Selina ranks #1272 among US girl names in 2025, with 176 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Selina?
- About 1 in every 9,132 US girls born in 2025 was named Selina — 176 in all.
- Will my child share the name Selina with classmates?
- Selina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Selina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Addie#1272 · Ashly#1272 · Faigy#1272 · Christine#1272 · Isha#1272 · Raylynn#1272 · Antonia#1279 · Leela#1279
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Selina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Selina and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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