Name Awesome

Selim

#2,638 in 2025Boys' name

To be safe, through سليم

Selim has been given to 1,023 babies in the U.S. since 1971. In 2025 it ranked #2,638 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2017, with 78 recorded.

Babies named Selim, 2025

1 in 66,300

Selim over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Selim: meaning, origin, and history

To be safe, through سليم

Arabic

What Selim means

Selim belongs to the name family reached through Selim → سليم. Its meaning is “to be safe”.

Origin, language, and formation

Selim is used in Finnish, Swedish and Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Selim comes through Swedish Selim and Arabic سليم.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include سليم.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Selim is pronounced /ˈselim/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,023 boys were recorded with the name Selim between 1971 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 78 in 2017; its best national rank was #1,880 in 2017.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,578 in 2020 to #2,638 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,349 in 2015 to #2,638 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Selim?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 66,300
50 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 34,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,638
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
45,959 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Selim sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 45,959 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Selim. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Selims were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Selim was born before 2017 — so the typical Selim is around 8 today.

Median birth year
2017
About 8 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
49.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
92.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,023
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 49.3% of all recorded uses (504).

Is Selim rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−378
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−60
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−289
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.89×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
64.1%
Peak was 2017 (78)
Years since peak
8
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,880
2017

Spellings of Selim

Selim is not the most common spelling — Eli is, with 56.5% against Selim's 0.38%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Selim is used

Across 1910–2025, Selim was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 129,941 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Florida1 in 100,000
  3. 3New Jersey1 in 100,000
  4. 4New York1 in 100,000
  5. 5Michigan1 in —
  6. 6Texas1 in —
  7. 7Virginia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Selim has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Selim around the world

Where Selim ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2025
    #1,035
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2023–2023
    #770
    in 2023
  • France
    1950–2025
    #352
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1992–2024
    #1,281
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2012–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Selim by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,638
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 60
Best rank ever
#1,880
2017
Peak year
2017
78 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,023
Count in 2025
50

Names similar to Selim

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SelbySelwynSelvinSelahSalimSeldonAlimSelmerSelmaHalimSeldenSeligElimSelsoAalimKalimSelmanSelassieWillimSelasiSelenaSeleemMuslimSaalim

Sibling names for Selim

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Selim

Top names of 2017, Selim's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2017Boys' names starting with SShort Finnish Boy NamesUncommon Turkish Boy Names