Selma
Feminine
Selma is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 26,881 girls against 321 boys since 1880.
Selma may come from a hall in a literary forgery that fooled most of Europe. The Ossian poems of the 1760s were presented as ancient Gaelic and were largely their editor's work — and Selma is the name of the royal hall in them.
How old is the name Selma?
Selma was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Selma alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 6,300 people named Selma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Selma most popular?
Selma peaked in 1891, reaching #162 nationally. Today it ranks #2778, 2,616 places below that high. See the whole 1891 chart.
Where it comes from
From Anselma to Selma
The story of Selma
The Ossian poems were enormously influential — read by Goethe, admired by Napoleon — and they seeded a set of names with no earlier existence. Selma spread through Scandinavia and Germany in the nineteenth century and reached America with emigration from both. It peaked in American records around 1890, and the Alabama city that shares the name has given it a separate and much heavier association since 1965.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Two accounts. Selma may be a shortening of Anselma, the feminine of Anselm — the Germanic ans, 'god', and helm, 'helmet'. Or it may come from the Ossian poems, in which Selma is a hall, apparently coined from a Gaelic phrase meaning 'beautiful view'. Nothing settles which route the name actually took.
How the name formed
- Anselma
- Selma
Related forms: Selma · Selma · Selma · Salma
Pronouncing Selma
SEL-muh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Swedish, German and Turkish all say it the same way.
Nicknames for Selma
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1918798 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #162reached in 1891
- Change vs 2022
- −3.2%61 in 2025, from 63
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.
Selma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Selma in Swedish — same name
- Selma in German — same name
- Selma in Turkish — same name
- Salma in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Selmas among us
people named Selma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 26,349 born in 2025 was named Selma
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Selma 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 Selma is headed
Selma should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Selma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Selma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a living name in Swedish, German, Turkish and Arabic-speaking countries alike.
- Two firm syllables with no pronunciation risk in any of them.
- A Swedish Nobel laureate in literature carried it, which is a substantial association.
- The origin is unsettled and one candidate is an eighteenth-century literary invention.
- In America the name carries the weight of the 1965 marches.
- It is period-coded to the turn of the last century in American records.
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What they receive
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Selma
Feminine · #2778 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Selmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,300 people named Selma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Selma in 2025?
- Selma ranks #2778 among US girl names in 2025, with 61 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Selma?
- About 1 in every 26,349 US girls born in 2025 was named Selma — 61 in all.
- Will my child share the name Selma with classmates?
- Selma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Selma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eugenia#2778 · Amour#2778 · Wynona#2778 · Joie#2778 · Bennie#2778 · Havyn#2778 · Wisdom#2778 · Aela#2778
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Selma? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Selma and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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