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The first name 
Selena

Selena is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Selena – known and loved in the US!

The name Selena isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Selena ranks 248. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 7 were named Selena. In the entire USA, approximately 51,751 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Selena. That is 0.02 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Selena

What does the name 
Selena mean?

The first name Selena is probably derived from the ancient Greek ‘selene’. The corresponding translation is then ‘moon’. Another word in ancient Greek is ‘selas’, which translates as ‘light’.

Jennifer Lopez starred... in a 1997 biographical musical drama entitled 'Selena'. It was one of her first major film roles.

Selena -
always with us since 1880

Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Selena is a staple in the country: Girls have been given the name Selena for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Selena is therefore one of only 432 girls’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Selena is a very special name, which reached its peak of popularity only in the last quarter of the 20th century, ranking in the top 100 girls' names in our SmartGenius statistics: With position 90 Selena has never been more popular than back in 1995.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Selena was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

1,270 newborn babies with the name Selena in 2022

As many as 1,270 babies were named Selena in the USA in 2022, ranking it #225 on the list of the most popular girls' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 1940, when it was only ranked at #1,544 of all female names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 22 girls were named Selena.

Selena has 6 letters 
and begins with an S

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter S is a very popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 9.3% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter A is more common for girls' names.

With six letters, the name Selena is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 9.3% of all girls' names start with an S, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the girls' names that start with an S, Susan is the most common.

Other names with 
S, e, l, e, n and a

If you take all the letters in the name Selena – S, e, l, e, n and a – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Salene or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Selena

If your name is Selena and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Selena

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Selena, you can simply say:

Sun

Elephant

Lion

Elephant

Nut

Apple

This is how the name Selena is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Selena in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Selena

Selena

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Selena

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Selena is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

S
E
L
E
N
A

Have you ever waved the name Selena

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

S
E
L
E
N
A

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Selena sounds like this: