Selmer
Masculine
Selmer is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 759 boys against 10 girls since 1880.
Selmer is a Scandinavian name recorded here for boys and girls alike, and it is also a word that every orchestral clarinetist and most saxophone players say several times a week.
How old is the name Selmer?
Selmer first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Selmer alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Selmer are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Selmer most popular?
Selmer peaked in 1899, reaching #661 nationally. See the whole 1899 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Selmer
Two brothers with that surname, both clarinetists, set up a workshop in Paris at the start of the twentieth century, and one of them opened a branch in New York. What came out of it is not a niche success: for most of a century a very large share of the world's professional clarinets have come from that one firm, and the saxophones it began making in the nineteen-twenties became the instrument almost every significant jazz player has used. The company bought the original saxophone patents from the family of the man who invented the thing. A surname on the bell of an instrument is one of the more durable ways for a name to survive.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Scandinavian name has been connected to Germanic elements about a hall and fame, and the derivation is not secure. Whether an American Selmer comes from that name or from the surname is not recorded.
Pronouncing Selmer
SEL-mur
Two syllables with the stress in front. In Norwegian the first vowel is clearer and the r is tapped.
Nicknames for Selmer
Limited
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
- 1887
- Most boys named
- 191643 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #661reached in 1899
- Change vs 1949
- −16.7%5 in 1950, from 6
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.
Selmers among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Selmer are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Selmer 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 first sight and rarely needs spelling twice.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- It is genuinely rare in America while being ordinary in Scandinavia.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- Anybody who plays a wind instrument will read it as a brand first.
- No origin is documented for the American first name, so the meaning question has nothing settled to answer with.
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Selmer
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Selmers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Selmer are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Selmer in 2025?
- Selmer is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Selmer with classmates?
- Selmer 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 Selmer? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Selmer and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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