Sema
Sema was given to 6 girls in 2025, #14,661 among girls’ names; 219 Americans have been recorded with it since 1930 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sema by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sema mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Sema is “a female given name”
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sema?
#14,661 among girls’ names, 2025
Sema rose from #18,680 in 2015 to #14,661 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 2.8 to 3.7 per million.
12 babies in 2014, the peak
Sema peaked in 2014, when 12 girls were given it, #9,443 among girls’ names. The 6 births of 2025 are 50% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #14,661 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 5 | #17,222 | 3.1 |
| 2021 | 5 | #17,287 | 3.0 |
| 2019 | 6 | #15,274 | 3.6 |
| 2018 | 8 | #12,308 | 4.7 |
| 2017 | 11 | #9,829 | 6.4 |
| 2016 | 10 | #10,726 | 5.6 |
| 2015 | 5 | #18,680 | 2.8 |
| 2014 | 12 | #9,443 | 6.7 |
| 2011 | 8 | #13,161 | 4.5 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 5 | #19,358 | 2.8 |
| 2009 | 9 | #12,281 | 4.9 |
| 2008 | 9 | #12,421 | 4.8 |
| 2007 | 7 | #15,202 | 3.6 |
| 2006 | 9 | #12,249 | 4.7 |
| 2004 | 5 | #18,305 | 2.7 |
| 2003 | 8 | #12,200 | 4.4 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,993 | 3.3 |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,682 | 3.3 |
| 1995 | 7 | #11,528 | 4.0 |
| 1994 | 5 | #15,282 | 2.8 |
| 1991 | 8 | #10,054 | 4.3 |
| 1988 | 5 | #13,439 | 2.8 |
| 1982 | 6 | #10,206 | 3.5 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,897 | 3.4 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,434 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,387 | 2.5 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,371 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,986 | 3.0 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,267 | 3.7 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,769 | 5.0 |
| 1932 | 6 | #4,346 | 5.6 |
| 1930 | 6 | #4,493 | 5.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sema a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sema has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 33 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sema: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sema, and how old are they?
An estimated 196 Americans named Sema and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 32. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 687 people named Sema (619 women and girls, 68 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 186 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.7 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 1,859 babies since 1880, Sema is the second most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6 of their 20 babies (30%), 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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Sema
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 Sema and names like it
- Compare Sema and SeemaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSema peaked in 2014.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sema since 1910.
- Turkish namesWiktionary’s origin for Sema: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Sema.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sema alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.