# Selah (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/selah/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | Hebrew |
| Meaning | “to hang”, “to weigh”, “to measure” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 15,394 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 207 / 15,187 (99% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 82, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Biblical Hebrew סֶלָה (selāh); according to some scholars, from סָלָה (salah, “to hang”, implying “to weigh”, “to measure”).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 506 | 576 |
| 2012 | 575 | 527 |
| 2013 | 552 | 538 |
| 2014 | 577 | 540 |
| 2015 | 690 | 461 |
| 2016 | 688 | 464 |
| 2017 | 695 | 457 |
| 2018 | 732 | 432 |
| 2019 | 701 | 445 |
| 2020 | 722 | 425 |
| 2021 | 828 | 378 |
| 2022 | 885 | 358 |
| 2023 | 1,027 | 301 |
| 2024 | 1,134 | 279 |
| 2025 | 1,416 | 216 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7 | 10,781 |
| 2010 | 8 | 9,528 |
| 2011 | 11 | 7,421 |
| 2012 | 6 | 12,030 |
| 2014 | 6 | 11,878 |
| 2015 | 7 | 10,441 |
| 2017 | 10 | 8,041 |
| 2018 | 15 | 5,997 |
| 2019 | 8 | 9,603 |
| 2020 | 13 | 6,564 |
| 2021 | 9 | 8,721 |
| 2022 | 8 | 9,690 |
| 2023 | 12 | 7,226 |
| 2024 | 21 | 4,852 |
| 2025 | 13 | 6,741 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 3 | 5,556 |
| 2014 | 4 | 4,684 |
| 2016 | 7 | 3,214 |
| 2017 | 3 | 5,765 |
| 2018 | 6 | 3,518 |
| 2019 | 5 | 4,001 |
| 2020 | 7 | 3,117 |
| 2021 | 7 | 3,192 |
| 2022 | 8 | 2,888 |
| 2023 | 6 | 3,598 |
| 2024 | 11 | 2,411 |
| 2025 | 12 | 2,278 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 | 5,137 |

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.