Selim
Selim was given to 50 boys in 2025, #2,638 among boys’ names; 1,023 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,010 Americans named Selim and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 13.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Selim by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Selim mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Selim is “a male given name from Arabic”
From Swedish Selim, from Arabic سليم; partly also from forms of Anselmi.
/ˈselim/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Selim?
#2,638 among boys’ names, 2025
Selim fell from #2,349 in 2015 to #2,638 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 29.2 to 29.3 per million.
78 babies in 2017, the peak
Selim peaked in 2017, when 78 boys were given it, #1,880 among boys’ names. The 50 births of 2025 are 64% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 50 | #2,638 | 29.3 |
| 2024 | 64 | #2,260 | 37.1 |
| 2023 | 54 | #2,503 | 31.6 |
| 2022 | 59 | #2,401 | 33.8 |
| 2021 | 56 | #2,431 | 32.0 |
| 2020 | 50 | #2,578 | 29.0 |
| 2019 | 74 | #1,994 | 41.2 |
| 2018 | 75 | #1,973 | 41.3 |
| 2017 | 78 | #1,880 | 42.1 |
| 2016 | 62 | #2,201 | 32.7 |
Every recorded year (36)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #2,349 | 29.2 |
| 2014 | 59 | #2,268 | 30.7 |
| 2013 | 30 | #3,565 | 15.9 |
| 2012 | 26 | #3,984 | 13.7 |
| 2011 | 26 | #3,967 | 13.7 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,208 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 15 | #6,033 | 7.6 |
| 2008 | 16 | #5,718 | 7.8 |
| 2007 | 9 | #8,798 | 4.3 |
| 2006 | 13 | #6,389 | 6.3 |
| 2005 | 13 | #6,154 | 6.5 |
| 2004 | 11 | #6,893 | 5.5 |
| 2003 | 16 | #4,997 | 8.1 |
| 2002 | 10 | #6,957 | 5.2 |
| 2001 | 9 | #7,413 | 4.6 |
| 2000 | 12 | #5,844 | 6.1 |
| 1999 | 9 | #6,996 | 4.7 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,965 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,814 | 3.7 |
| 1992 | 5 | #9,568 | 2.5 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,377 | 2.5 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,937 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,395 | 2.7 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,519 | 3.9 |
| 1978 | 7 | #4,961 | 4.3 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,531 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Selim a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Selim has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 36 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Selim: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Selim, and how old are they?
1,010 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,023 Americans ever recorded as Selim. The median Selim alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 13.
The 2020 Census counted 1,087 people named Selim (38 women and girls, 1,049 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 695 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 11 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 32 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 207 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 761 |
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 Selim born?
The states with the most babies named Selim are Texas, California and New York, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 9 | #1,886 | 0.4× |
| California | 8 | #1,958 | 1.0× |
| New York | 6 | #1,726 | 2.6× |
Where Selim is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Selim is most over-represented in New York: since 1971 it was given 2.6 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 boys’ 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 Selim 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,076 babies since 1880, Selim is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 50 of their 50 babies (100%), 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 Selim
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 Selim and names like it
- Compare Selim and SeleemBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSelim peaked in 2017.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Selim since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Selim: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Selim.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Selim alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.