Selin
Greek at root, carried into Poland through Turkish, where it reads as "rushing water". Most Poles have never met one, but after a quiet stretch a few newborn girls are turning up again: a small name on the way up.
Selin Pronunciation
Selin is pronounced SE-leen (/ˈsɛlin/).
What Selin means
Where Selin comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Selin begins in Greek, in Selene, the goddess of the moon. That lunar sense is what the dictionaries record as its origin. The name then traveled into Turkish. There speakers heard the word "sel", which means flood or rushing water, and the association stuck.
The name holds two pictures at once. One is the moon overhead. The other is water moving fast across open ground. The Turkish reading came later, layered onto the Greek root rather than replacing it.
In Turkey, Selin is a common name for girls. It stays short and needs no diminutive. On a Polish class register the name reads clear and foreign, five letters, easy to call out. Behind those letters sit a Greek moon and a Turkish flood.
How many people are named Selin
1 in 158759 women in Poland is named Selin. 144 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2723 among female names.
Selin's popularity over time
4 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #1141 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2022.
Where Selin is most popular
Selin is most popular in Greater Poland, 904% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).
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Greater Poland2 girls born+904%
Selin as a middle name
Selin is a first name for 144 women in Poland and a middle name for another 31, an 82/18 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1272nd, between Santana (31) and Shirley (31).
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#1270 Priya31
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#1271 Santana31
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#1272 Selin31
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#1273 Shirley31
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#1274 Waldemara31