How Many People Are Named Selma?
people named Selma are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 56,094 people in the US has this name
Based on 27,202 babies named Selma in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
💎💎 Very Rare
Peak Year
811 births
Trend
Stable (last 10 years)
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
Meaning unknown, possibly a short form of ANSELMA. It could also have been inspired by James Macpherson's 18th-century poems, in which it is the name of Ossian's castle.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
Of the babies given the name Selma, 99.3% were girls and 0.7% were boys.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Selma alive today is about 48 years old, and 47% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 18 and 76 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Selma first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 1918, to 811 babies. In 2025, 61 babies got the name.
Babies given the name each year, 1880 to 2025
🏆 Rank History
Selma has never been one of the 100 most popular girls' names. Its best rank was #163, in 1891. In 2025 it ranked #2,810.
| Girls | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #2,810 |
| Best rank | #163 (1891) |
| Years in the top 100 | None |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #255 in the 1920s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Selma alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Selma were born in New York than in any other state: about 665 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Selma was given 3.1 times as often in New York, 2.8 times in North Dakota and 1.5 times in North Carolina.
Look up another name
⊙ We don't save the names you search.