Meaning and history
Selma has uncertain and multiple origins. It was used by James Macpherson in the eighteenth-century Ossian poems as the name of a castle, helping establish it in English, and it may also function as a short form of Anselma. The name became common in Scandinavia and Germany. Notable bearers include writer Selma Lagerlöf and actress Selma Blair.
20062006: 103 births, rank #1,939
2007: 100 births, rank #2,034
2008: 90 births, rank #2,206
2009: 87 births, rank #2,244
2010: 86 births, rank #2,237
20112011: 96 births, rank #2,026
2012: 72 births, rank #2,516
2013: 82 births, rank #2,259
2014: 109 births, rank #1,853
2015: 88 births, rank #2,152
20162016: 95 births, rank #2,068
2017: 88 births, rank #2,160
2018: 79 births, rank #2,302
2019: 87 births, rank #2,140
2020: 83 births, rank #2,170
20212021: 63 births, rank #2,715
2022: 63 births, rank #2,720
2023: 74 births, rank #2,415
2024: 61 births, rank #2,775
20252025: 61 births, rank #2,778
Selma moved from #927 to #942 for girls between 1955 and 1956. Its highest annual birth count came in 1918, with 798 births.