Meaning of the nameSelma
- Female
- Sel-ma
Selma is a female name of uncertain origin, which Wiktionary gives as an equivalent of the English Selma, perhaps a short form of Anselma.
Meaning
The meaning of Selma is not known for certain. No reliable source documents it, so we give none; below are the origin of the spelling and the official figures.
- People (2022)
- 94,743
- Rank in Brazil
- #334
- Median age
- 52 years
- 2010 Census
- 102,364
- people
Selma in the 2022 Census
People with the first name Selma, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1970s (30,078 people).
94,368 women 375 men
Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.
Where the name Selma is most common
States with the highest share of people named Selma in the population, in the 2022 Census.
- Rio de Janeiro 0.074%
- Goiás 0.063%
- Rondônia 0.057%
- Minas Gerais 0.056%
- São Paulo 0.055%
All states
| State | People | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| São Paulo | 24,576 | 0.055% |
| Rio de Janeiro | 11,920 | 0.074% |
| Minas Gerais | 11,423 | 0.056% |
| Bahia | 7,238 | 0.051% |
| Paraná | 4,784 | 0.042% |
| Goiás | 4,425 | 0.063% |
| Pará | 3,871 | 0.048% |
| Pernambuco | 3,827 | 0.042% |
| Rio Grande do Sul | 2,397 | 0.022% |
| Santa Catarina | 2,083 | 0.027% |
| Espírito Santo | 1,973 | 0.052% |
| Mato Grosso | 1,664 | 0.046% |
| Ceará | 1,610 | 0.018% |
| Alagoas | 1,512 | 0.048% |
| Maranhão | 1,410 | 0.021% |
| Paraíba | 1,301 | 0.033% |
| Mato Grosso do Sul | 1,297 | 0.047% |
| Amazonas | 1,274 | 0.032% |
| Rio Grande do Norte | 1,243 | 0.038% |
| Distrito Federal | 1,226 | 0.044% |
| Sergipe | 1,092 | 0.049% |
| Rondônia | 895 | 0.057% |
| Piauí | 530 | 0.016% |
| Tocantins | 524 | 0.035% |
| Amapá | 333 | 0.045% |
| Acre | 179 | 0.022% |
| Roraima | 136 | 0.021% |
States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.
About the name Selma
The origin of Selma is uncertain. Wiktionary records the name in Portuguese as an equivalent of the English Selma, and Behind the Name says the meaning of the English name is unknown: perhaps it is a short form of Anselma, or perhaps it comes from the poems of James Macpherson, from the eighteenth century, in which Selma is the name of Ossian's castle. For the Turkish Selma, Wiktionary gives another origin, the Arabic salmā. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 94,743 people named Selma, most of them born in the 1960s and 1970s. Proportionally, the name is most common in Rio de Janeiro.
Sources
- Wiktionary: Selma · en.wiktionary.org · origin
- Wiktionary: Selma (English) · en.wiktionary.org · origin
- Behind the Name: Selma · behindthename.com · origin
- Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Selma · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · spelling
Questions about the name Selma
What does the name Selma mean?
The meaning of Selma is not known for certain: no reliable source documents it. So we give no meaning; the page shows the origin of the spelling and the official figures.
How many people are named Selma in Brazil?
IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 94,743 people with the first name Selma, which ranks it number 334 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1970s.
Is Selma a boy's or a girl's name?
Selma is a female name: in the 2022 Census, 94,368 women and 375 men had this name.
In which Brazilian state is Selma most common?
Proportionally, in Rio de Janeiro: 0.074% of the state's population is named Selma (11,920 people), according to the 2022 Census.
Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Selma with a source. See the methodology.