# Selway (surname)

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

A surname transferred from the given name.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | patronymic, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 441 |
| US rank (2010) | 47,966 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 700,103 people |
| Change since 2000 | +11% (399 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Selvey, Selvy |

## Etymology

From the Middle English personal name Salewi, probably from an unattested Old English personal name *Sǣlwīġ, composed of the elements sǣl (“happiness, prosperity, opportunity”) and wīġ (“war, battle”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Selway 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) | 93% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.2% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.0% |
| Two or more races | 3.0% |

## Similar surnames

Sliwa, Seeley, Sell, Seal, Seely, Shealy, Slay, Sealy, Sealey, Seelye, Sewall, Selley.

## 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.