Selah
Selah was given to 1,416 girls in 2025, #216 among girls’ names; 15,394 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,300 Americans named Selah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Selah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Selah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Selah is “a female given name from Hebrew derived from the Biblical interjection (possibly mistaken for a name).” Its etymology gives the senses “to hang” (salah,) and “to weigh” (implying) and “to measure” (,).
Biblical Hebrew סֶלָה (selāh); according to some scholars, from סָלָה (salah, “to hang”, implying “to weigh”, “to measure”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Selah?
#216 among girls’ names, 2025
Selah rose from #461 in 2015 to #216 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.39 to 0.88 per 1,000.
1,429 babies in 2025, the peak
Selah peaked in 2025, when 1,429 babies were given it (1,416 girls, #216 among girls’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,134 girls.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,416 | #216 | 0.88 |
| 2024 | 1,134 | #279 | 0.70 |
| 2023 | 1,027 | #301 | 0.64 |
| 2022 | 885 | #358 | 0.54 |
| 2021 | 828 | #378 | 0.50 |
| 2020 | 722 | #425 | 0.45 |
| 2019 | 701 | #445 | 0.42 |
| 2018 | 732 | #432 | 0.43 |
| 2017 | 695 | #457 | 0.40 |
| 2016 | 688 | #464 | 0.39 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 690 | #461 | 0.39 |
| 2014 | 577 | #540 | 0.32 |
| 2013 | 552 | #538 | 0.31 |
| 2012 | 575 | #527 | 0.33 |
| 2011 | 506 | #576 | 0.29 |
| 2010 | 460 | #645 | 0.26 |
| 2009 | 419 | #695 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 380 | #773 | 0.20 |
| 2007 | 344 | #833 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 324 | #832 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 263 | #944 | 0.14 |
| 2004 | 179 | #1,228 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 179 | #1,197 | 0.10 |
| 2002 | 154 | #1,279 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 124 | #1,512 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 116 | #1,547 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 100 | #1,663 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 48 | #2,792 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 33 | #3,526 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 40 | #3,011 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 40 | #2,962 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,924 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 24 | #4,352 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,216 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 16 | #5,887 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,753 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,478 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,236 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 16 | #5,027 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 12 | #6,075 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 8 | #8,148 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #10,102 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,777 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 17 | #4,490 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,707 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,233 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 9 | #7,178 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 14 | #4,874 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 8 | #7,416 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,986 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,504 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,481 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #8,035 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,633 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,442 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Selah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 15,394 Americans recorded as Selah, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 1,416 girls and 13 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Selah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Selah, and how old are they?
15,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 15,394 Americans ever recorded as Selah. The median Selah alive today is 9 years old; half are between 4 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 8,613 people named Selah (8,427 women and girls, 186 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,420 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 5 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 67 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 253 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,250 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,700 |
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 Selah born?
The states with the most babies named Selah are California, Texas and Florida, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 155 | #213 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 152 | #230 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 109 | #163 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 65 | #158 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 60 | #193 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 57 | #186 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 56 | #204 | 0.9× |
| Indiana | 50 | #133 | 1.2× |
| Virginia | 48 | #172 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 46 | #198 | 1.1× |
Where Selah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Selah is most over-represented in Colorado: since 1962 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
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 Selah with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 18,030 babies since 1880, Selah is the most given (85% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,429 of their 1,511 babies (95%), again the most given.
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 Selah
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 Selah and names like it
- Compare Selah and SelaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSelah peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Selah since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Selah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Selah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.