Selima
Selima was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,869 among girls’ names; 55 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Selima by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Selima?
#16,869 among girls’ names, 2025
Selima rose from #18,679 in 2015 to #16,869 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 2.8 to 3.1 per million.
7 babies in 1977, the peak
Selima peaked in 1977, when 7 girls were given it, #8,233 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 71% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,869 | 3.1 |
| 2016 | 5 | #18,426 | 2.8 |
| 2015 | 5 | #18,679 | 2.8 |
| 2012 | 5 | #19,092 | 2.8 |
| 1982 | 6 | #10,205 | 3.5 |
| 1981 | 5 | #11,771 | 3.0 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,933 | 3.7 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,468 | 3.9 |
| 1977 | 7 | #8,233 | 4.6 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,896 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Selima a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Selima has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 10 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Selima: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Selima, and how old are they?
An estimated 53 Americans named Selima and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 218 people named Selima (218 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 49 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4.4 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 27,257 babies since 1880, Selima is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 66 babies (7.6%), again the second 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.
More about Selima and names like it
- Compare Selima and SelmaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sSelima peaked in 1977.
- The top names of 1977The year the most babies were named Selima.
- Names starting with SMost given first.