Find out how popular the last name Selby is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Selby.

Selby, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Selby surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Selby in America

Selby is the 3008th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Selby surname appeared 11,908 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Selby.

We can also compare 2010 data for Selby to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Selby

The surname Selby originates from the Anglian village of the same name in Yorkshire, England, dating back to the 7th century. The village was originally called "Sealhfar" in Old English, meaning "seal settlement" or "seal dwelling," referring to the colony of seals that once resided in the area.

The name Selby appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, recorded as "Sellebi" and "Seleby," indicating its Norman roots. It is believed that the name was brought to England by Norman settlers after the conquest of 1066, who adapted the existing Old English place name.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Selby is found in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire from 1166, where a landowner named William de Selby is mentioned. The prefix "de" signified his connection to the village of Selby.

In the 13th century, a notable figure was Galfridus de Selby, also known as Geoffrey of Selby, an English Benedictine monk and chronicler who wrote the "Historia Selebiensis" (History of Selby Abbey) around 1260.

During the 14th century, John Selby, a Yorkshire landowner, was appointed as the Keeper of the King's Wardrobe by King Edward III in 1345.

In the 16th century, George Selby (1508-1585) was a prominent English churchman who served as the Bishop of Llandaff and later the Bishop of Ely.

Another notable bearer of the Selby surname was Sir William Selby (1583-1638), an English military commander who fought in the Thirty Years' War and was knighted for his service.

In the 18th century, Prideaux John Selby (1788-1867) was a renowned English ornithologist and naturalist, best known for his work "Illustrations of British Ornithology" published between 1821 and 1834.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Selby

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Selby.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Selby was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Selby has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Selby was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Selby, please contact us.

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