# Selby (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/selby/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A habitational surname from Old Norse.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Norse |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 11,908 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,008 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 25,928 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.3% (11,533 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsɛlbi/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old Norse selja (“willow, sallow”) + býr (“settlement, farm”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Selby in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 81% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 13% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Selby in the United States.

## People named Selby

- Hubert Selby Jr., American writer (1928–2004)
- David Selby, American actor (born 1941)
- Josh Selby, American basketball player (born 1991)

## Similar surnames

Slaby, Self, Shelby, Silva, Sylvia, Silvia, Silvey, Scalf, Selph, Salvo, Saliba, Sylva.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.