Sela
Sela was given to 29 girls in 2025, #4,737 among girls’ names; 1,328 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,310 Americans named Sela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 12 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Sela?
#4,737 among girls’ names, 2025
Sela rose from #4,836 in 2015 to #4,737 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 16.2 to 18.0 per million.
81 babies in 2000, the peak
Sela peaked in 2000, when 81 girls were given it, #2,044 among girls’ names. The 29 births of 2025 are 36% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 29 | #4,737 | 18.0 |
| 2024 | 35 | #4,197 | 21.6 |
| 2023 | 26 | #5,100 | 16.2 |
| 2022 | 24 | #5,439 | 14.6 |
| 2021 | 21 | #5,914 | 12.8 |
| 2020 | 19 | #6,284 | 11.8 |
| 2019 | 27 | #5,014 | 16.1 |
| 2018 | 45 | #3,485 | 26.5 |
| 2017 | 27 | #5,030 | 15.6 |
| 2016 | 22 | #5,953 | 12.4 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 29 | #4,836 | 16.2 |
| 2014 | 34 | #4,341 | 19.0 |
| 2013 | 29 | #4,865 | 16.5 |
| 2012 | 37 | #4,106 | 21.0 |
| 2011 | 43 | #3,651 | 24.4 |
| 2010 | 31 | #4,714 | 17.4 |
| 2009 | 50 | #3,347 | 27.2 |
| 2008 | 51 | #3,310 | 27.0 |
| 2007 | 63 | #2,885 | 32.8 |
| 2006 | 68 | #2,664 | 35.8 |
| 2005 | 64 | #2,662 | 34.6 |
| 2004 | 47 | #3,252 | 25.6 |
| 2003 | 64 | #2,545 | 35.0 |
| 2002 | 61 | #2,572 | 33.9 |
| 2001 | 66 | #2,401 | 36.7 |
| 2000 | 81 | #2,044 | 44.6 |
| 1999 | 33 | #3,702 | 18.6 |
| 1998 | 20 | #5,315 | 11.3 |
| 1997 | 11 | #8,223 | 6.3 |
| 1996 | 31 | #3,610 | 17.7 |
| 1995 | 29 | #3,753 | 16.5 |
| 1994 | 20 | #4,978 | 11.2 |
| 1993 | 20 | #4,950 | 11.1 |
| 1992 | 9 | #9,329 | 4.9 |
| 1991 | 8 | #10,050 | 4.3 |
| 1990 | 7 | #11,136 | 3.7 |
| 1987 | 10 | #7,229 | 5.8 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,344 | 4.1 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,788 | 4.4 |
| 1977 | 6 | #9,375 | 3.9 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,289 | 3.4 |
| 1954 | 5 | #6,478 | 2.6 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,975 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sela, and how old are they?
1,310 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,328 Americans ever recorded as Sela. The median Sela alive today is 20 years old; half are between 12 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 1,456 people named Sela (1,410 women and girls, 46 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,166 born in the U.S. The Census count is 25% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Sela rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 13 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 12 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 138 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 782 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 365 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Sela born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6 | #3,050 | 0.9× |
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Sela with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Sela?
Sela is a less common spelling of Selah: SSA has recorded 1,328 Sela and 15,394 Selah since 1880.
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 18,030 babies since 1880, Sela is the second most given (7.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 29 of their 1,511 babies (1.9%), the third most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Sela
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Sela and names like it
- Compare Sela and SelahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSela peaked in 2000.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sela since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Sela.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sela alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.