Girl · Uncertain; possibly Scottish Gaelic via the Ossian poems
Selma
Say it: SEL-mah
Meaning
Uncertain. It may come from Selma, the hall of Fingal in James Macpherson's Ossian poems, which made it fashionable in Scandinavia; other origins have been proposed.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Fashionable in Scandinavia in the 19th century and popular again in recent years.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1890s
In the United States
- 26,877 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1891, about 1 in 900 girls
- 81 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
Famous bearers
- Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish Nobel-winning novelist
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Well-known works of literature
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.