Selma

Taken to use in the 19th century when similar-sounding names, Elma, Thelma, Alma, Wilma, etc. were in vogue. Perhaps a shortening of Anselma, or from the name of a place in the James Macpherson's Ossian cycle of epic poems, itself from Scottish Gaelic sealladh + math (“good vision”). In some cases perhaps borrowed from Turkish Selma, from Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlmə/

Selma (countable and uncountable, plural Selmas)

1. (countable) A female given name.
2. (countable) A surname.
3. A placename
   1. A community in Nova Scotia, Canada.
   2. A village in Graubünden canton, Switzerland.
   3. A place in the United States.
      1. A city, the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama; named for James Macpherson's Ossianic poem The Songs of Selma.
         • 2015 March 5, Douglas Brinkley, “Selma’s historic bridge deserves a better name”, in CNN‎^[1]:

           So when King – who had been in Atlanta for “Bloody Sunday” – telegrammed Parks about returning to Alabama to take part in a third mass march from Selma to Montgomery, her immediate answer was “Why, of course.”

      2. A city in Fresno County, California; named for early resident Selma Michelson.
      3. A city in Texas.
      4. A town in North Carolina; named for the city in Alabama.
      5. A town in Indiana.
      6. A census-designated place in Josephine County, Oregon.
      7. A census-designated place in Virginia.
      8. An unincorporated community in Arkansas.
      9. An unincorporated community in Iowa.
      10. An unincorporated community in Kansas.
      11. An unincorporated community in Missouri; named for the place in the Ossian cycle.
      12. An unincorporated community in Ohio.

Selma (plural Selmas)

1. (US, politics, figuratively) A confrontation where authorities brutally repress those wanting civil rights, similar to Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.
   • 2020, Dane Smith, Star Tribune (Minneapolis), "Toward a better patriotism", 3 July 2020

     Eventually, our place and response may be viewed as a historic turning point, another Selma for the nation and world.

   • 2015, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Workers World, "Black and Brown unity in Alabama", 24 June 2015

     Shelby County has become the new Selma.

   • 1986, Daily Sitka Sentinel, Sitka Weekend, p.11, Friday 17 January 1986

     "I don't know how many Selmas you have in your memory," she said. "I have a lot in mine."

   • 1965, The Fresno Bee, p.60, Wednesday 21 July 1965:

     How Many Selmas? Still another city in the south Is learning the hard way ​that the Negro will settle for nothing less than first class citizenship.

• Bloody Sunday

• Smeal, Salem, semla, mesal, Lemas, almes, males, EMALS, MELAS, lamés, lames, amels, Melas, Males, melas, meals, Smale, leams

Possibly from Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).

Selma

1. a surname

Selma

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Selma

Selma

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Selma

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlma/
• Rhymes: -ɛlma

Selma f

1. a female given name

Matronymics

• son of Selma: Selmuson
• daughter of Selma: Selmudóttir

From English Selma.

• IPA^(key): /ˈselmɑ/, [ˈs̠e̞lmɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -elmɑ
• Syllabification^(key): Sel‧ma
• Hyphenation^(key): Sel‧ma

Selma

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Selma

• Selma is the 248^th (tied with 1 other name) most common female given name in Finland, belonging to 2,147 female individuals (and as a middle name to 612 more), according to February 2023 data from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of Finland.

• Salme

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛlma/
• Rhymes: -ɛlma

Selma f (proper noun, genitive singular Selmu)

1. a female given name

Selma

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Selma

Selma f

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Selma

From Ottoman Turkish سلمى (selma) (Turkish Selma), from Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).

Selma f (Cyrillic spelling Селма)

1. a female given name

• “Selma”, in Portal suvremenih hrvatskih osobnih imena [Portal of contemporary Croatian personal names] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2018–2025

• Audio:

  (file)

Selma c (genitive Selmas)

1. a female given name, equivalent to English Selma

• males, samle, semla, smale

Borrowed from English, from various similar-sounding female given names.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈselma/ [ˈsɛl.mɐ]
• Rhymes: -elma
• Syllabification: Sel‧ma

Selma (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜒᜎ᜔ᜋ)

1. a female given name from English

• masel

From Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).

Selma

1. a female given name from Arabic