Selby

Selby is the 3,163rd most common surname in the United States, shared by 11,138 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 26,800.

By the numbers

People: 11,138
Rank: 3,163rd
How common: 1 in 26,800
Per 100,000: 3.7

Where the name comes from

Origin Old Norse

From Old Norse selja (“willow, sallow”) + býr (“settlement, farm”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Selby described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 78.6%
Black, not Hispanic 12.7%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.0%
Hispanic or Latino 3.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Selby

Mark Selby (born 1983)English snooker player
Hubert Selby Jr. (1928–2004)American writer
Prideaux John Selby (1788–1867)English ornithologist, botanist and illustrator
David Selby (born 1941)American actor
Andrew Selby (born 1988)Welsh boxer
Lee Selby (born 1987)Welsh boxer

People named Selby with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Selby

Also a first name

Selby has been given to 981 American babies as a first name since 1909, peaking in 1922. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.