Selma

About Selma

Selma brings together two naming histories. In northern and western European use, its origin is uncertain, possibly connected with Anselma or eighteenth-century poetry. Turkish Selma is a form of Arabic Salma, meaning “safe.” Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf is one of the name's most distinguished bearers.

Two origins

The European name may be a short form of Anselma. Another possibility is a literary source in James Macpherson's poems, where Selma is the name of Ossian's castle. Neither route establishes one certain meaning for every European bearer.

The Turkish name has a clearer connection: Selma corresponds to Salma, from an Arabic root meaning “to be safe.” This tradition is independent of the possible Anselma and Ossian connections. Zelma is a related English variant of the European name.

In English, Selma is pronounced SEL-muh, with stress on the first syllable. Its two syllables and final a are shared by many of its European-language uses, while pronunciation varies somewhat across languages.

Selma Lagerlöf and Swedish literature

Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909. Her writing helped make the name internationally familiar through Swedish literature, and she later became the first woman elected to the Swedish Academy.

Her books include Gösta Berlings saga and Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey through Sweden. The latter appeared in two parts in 1906 and 1907, originally intended as a school reading book.

The Nils story combines imaginative travel with the geography of Sweden. That unusual meeting of storytelling and education helped give the work a life beyond an ordinary classroom text. Lagerlöf's name consequently connects Selma with both literary distinction and a story encountered by generations of children.

The American place association

Selma, Alabama, also has a literary connection in its name. The town's name came from the Songs of Selma in the eighteenth-century Poems of Ossian. That history overlaps with the proposed literary route for the personal name.

The city became central to the American voting-rights struggle in 1965. On March 7, peaceful marchers were violently confronted by law enforcement at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an event remembered as Bloody Sunday.

The Selma-to-Montgomery campaign helped bring national attention to voting barriers and contributed to the passage of the Voting Rights Act that year. For American readers, this place association can be as immediate as the Swedish literary one.

American popularity

Selma's largest annual American count was 798 girls in 1918. Its best rank came earlier, at #163 in 1891. Those peaks place its strongest national period well before the middle of the twentieth century.

The SSA counted 81 girls named Selma in 2000 and 86 in 2010. In 2025 the count was 61, ranking #2,810. It remains an established international name with comparatively rare recent American use.

How popular is Selma?

In 2025, Selma ranked #2,810 among girls in the United States, with 61 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1880; its largest annual count was 798 in 1918. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.