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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: ArabicIn Israel: steady

SelmaIn Hebrew: סלמה · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Selma (Hebrew: סלמה) is a girl's name of Arabic origin. 1,345 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 31 girls and ranked #379. Its peak year was 2016, with 53 babies.

People in Israel
1,345
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
31
rank #379
Peak year
2016
53 babies
USA, 2025
61
rank #2,778

Writing and saying Selma

In Hebrew letters the name is סלמה, read right to left. Selma is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Selma by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Selma: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Selma in English-speaking countries

Selma in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202561#2,7781918 (798)
United Kingdom202512#2,3452017 (28)
England and Wales202512#2,2772017 (28)
Alberta20251#2,5382019 (3)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Selma has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Selma

How do you write Selma in Hebrew?

Selma is written סלמה in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Selma?

1,345 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name סלמה: 1,313 women and 32 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Selma a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 97.6% of the people named סלמה are women.

Is Selma used outside Israel?

The name Selma appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 61 girls were given it in 2025 (#2,778), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 12 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.