Selena

What Selena means

Means “heavenly”

Either a variant of Selina, from Latin Caelīna (“heavenly”, from caelum (“sky, heaven”)), or from Selene, the Ancient Greek goddess of the moon.

Source: Wiktionary, “Selena” (revision 91170685), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Selena?

US: Rising: up from #320 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #708 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1995, when 3,825 girls got the name (#91 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 1,374 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,890 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 2,236 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in NM (3.64 per 1,000 girls), HI (2.8 per 1,000 girls), RI (2.45 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Selena is #268 in the US and #324 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Selena were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Solana599 US · 11 E&W
• Celina329 US · 35 E&W
• Selina176 US · 64 E&W
• Celena37 US
• Salina35 US
• Zelina28 US
• Solina19 US
• Zelena19 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Selena

Girls

• Thalia#647“flourish, to be verdant”^*
• Zoe#31Variant of Zoë, meaning “life”^*
• Andie#650Diminutive of Andrew, meaning “manly”^*
• Maya#62Editor’s note Steady in the US: #68 in 2015 and #62 in 2025. About 1 in 430 US girls in the 2025 records
• Lexi#628Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #308 in 2015, #628 in 2025
• Helena#363Editor’s note Up from #534 in 2015 to #363 in 2025 in the US

For a brother

• Nicolas#177Variant of Nicholas, meaning “victory + people”^*
• Cristian#362Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #362 vs #1,197 in 2025
• Pierce#505Form of Peter, meaning “stone, rock”^*
• Isaias#426Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #426 vs #3,256 in 2025
• Solomon#422“peace”^*
• Orion#334possibly “heaven's light”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Greek, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Selena’s. Rank is US 2025.