Selma

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4.36

(22 votes)

Female Name

Usage

Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Finnish
Icelandic
Faroese

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Origin and Meaning

1) Short form of Anselma (see Anshelm)

2) From the name of Fingal's castle in the Ossian poem by James Macpherson (1760s):

Celtic shelma = 'beautiful view' (used as a first name first in German poetry in the late 18th century)

3) Variant form of Salma

4) Female form of Selmer

Related Names

Selbmá	♀
Selma	♀
Siilma	♀
Sîlma	♀
Zelma	♀

See also Selmine

For male forms see Selm and Selmar

Combinations

For combinations see SELM (name element)

Matronyms [What's That?]

Male

Selmuson

Female

Selmudóttir

Grammar

- Danish
Nominative:	Selma
Genitive:	Selmas

- Faroese
Nominative:	Selma
Accusative:	Selmu
Dative:	Selmu
Genitive:	Selmu

- Finnish
Nominative:	Selma
Genitive:	Selman
Partitive:	Selmaa

- Icelandic
Nominative:	Selma
Accusative:	Selmu
Dative:	Selmu
Genitive:	Selmu

- Norwegian
Nominative:	Selma
Genitive:	Selmas

- Swedish
Nominative:	Selma
Genitive:	Selmas

Name Days

Finland

5 December

Norway

21 February

Finland (Swedish Language)

5 December

Sweden

27 June

Further Information

• Iceland: Officially approved as a given name
• Faroe Islands: Officially approved as a given name

Earliest Documented Usage

• Sweden: 1799
• Denmark: 18th century
• Norway: 1846

Strongest Period of Usage

• Sweden:
  • 1885-1909
• Denmark:
  • -1910
  • -1950
  • 1990-

Predominant Regional Usage

• Norway:
  • Vest-Agder
  • Rogaland
• Denmark:
  • Vestjylland
• Sweden:
  • Västergötland (19th century) see map
  • Bohuslän (19th century) see map
  • Närke (19th century) see map
  • Uppland (19th century) see map
  • Gotland (19th century) see map
  • Västerbotten (19th century) see map
  • Öland (19th century) see map

Namesakes

• Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf, 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940, Swedish author and Nobel laureate (Literature, 1909)
• Selma Lønning Aarø (born 13 July 1972), Norwegian author

Statistics

Name Count per Country (What's this?)

Please turn your device to landscape orientation for better view of statistics tables and graphs.

Country	Commonness Commonness	Total		Female ♀		Male ♂
		as main name#	also middle name&	as main name#	also middle name&	as main name#	also middle name&
Sweden		8466	11037	8466	11037	0	0
Finland		n.a.	12464	n.a.	12464	0	0
Denmark		2982	n.a.	2982	n.a.	0	n.a.
Iceland		333	381	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Greenland		5	12	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Norway		4459	n.a.	4459	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
#: count of main first name only
&: count of both main and additional first names
Name counts are approximate as statistics normally is not published for names given to less than 3 or 5 persons per country.

 

Recent Statistics Trend

Sources:

Top List Ranking

Sources:

Norwegian Historic Statistics Trend

Swedish Regional Distribution

Regional distribution of Selma (f) in Sweden in the year 1880.