Selim
A masculine Arabic name meaning "safe, secure or peaceful".
Name Census estimates that about 963 living Americans carry the first name Selim. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Selim today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Selim births was 2017 (78 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Selim. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Selim with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
963
~ 1 in 355,924 Americans
Peak year
2017
78 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,252
Tracked since 1971
Census
Selim in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,077 people with the first name Selim, which placed it at #11,755 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#11,755
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,077 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Selim
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Selim is White at 79.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Selim described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Selim at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.4% · 855
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 82
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.2% · 78
- Black or African American2.8% · 30
- Two or more races2.6% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Popularity
Selim: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Selim from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 504 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Selim remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Selim by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Selim during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Selims live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Selim, while Michigan, Virginia, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 69 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Selim
The name Selim is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "salim" which means "safe," "peaceful," or "intact." It first gained popularity in the Islamic world during the medieval period.
Selim was the name of several notable historical figures, including Selim I, also known as Selim the Grim, who was the Ottoman Sultan from 1512 to 1520. He was responsible for expanding the Ottoman Empire into the Middle East, capturing territories from the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Safavid Empire.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Selim II, the son of Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1566 to 1574. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire reached its peak territorial extent, stretching from the Algerian border to the Caspian Sea.
In Persian literature, Selim is a prominent character in the epic poem "Shahnameh" (The Book of Kings) by the poet Ferdowsi. Selim was the son of Tur, the legendary king of Yemen, and his story revolves around his quest for vengeance against his brother, who had usurped the throne.
The name Selim also appears in the Quran, one of the central religious texts of Islam, where it is mentioned as a characteristic of the righteous and pious. This association with Islamic teachings and values may have contributed to the name's popularity among Muslims throughout history.
Other notable historical figures who bore the name Selim include Selim Pasha (1838-1915), an Ottoman military leader and statesman, and Selim III (1761-1808), the 28th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who was known for his efforts to modernize and reform the empire.
Throughout the centuries, the name Selim has been widely used across various cultures and regions, particularly in the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia, reflecting its rich historical and cultural significance.
People
Selim + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Selim as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Selim: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Selim?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 963 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Selim going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 355,924 US residents.
Is Selim a common name?
We classify Selim as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 973 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Selim most popular?
The single biggest year for Selim was 2017, when 78 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Selim is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Selim in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,077 people with the name Selim, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,755 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Selim in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Selim?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Selim leans strongly male. 1,049 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 38 female bearers (3.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Selim?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Selim is White at 79.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Selim most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Selim in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.4% (855 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Selim in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Selim a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Selim in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Selim still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Selim in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Selim can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Selim?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.