Selma

Meanings

Proper Noun

• A female given name.
• A placename

Noun

• A confrontation where authorities brutally repress those wanting civil rights, similar to Bloody Sunday (1965) in Selma, Alabama.

Origin

• 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. In some cases perhaps borrowed from Turkish Selma, from Arabic سَلْمَى.