Conference oass::babynames

87.0. "Selma" by HUMAN::BURROWS (Selma Burrows) Wed Mar 04 1987 22:34

        Since I have reply to some of the notes I guess I ought to
        enter what I know about my name - Selma Lavelle Brown Burrows.
        
        My parents names are Robert and Phyllis and they decided
        that they wanted a name that was different. Apparently someone
        my father worked with suggested the name Selma and my parents
        thought it was perfect (I like it too). Lavelle is my mother's
        middle name and Brown (from the German Braun) is my maiden
        name.
        
        I have never met another Selma just Thelma's. The only Selma's
        I know of are Kahlil Gibraun's mistress and the actress Selma
        Diamond (for reference she played the original court matron
        on the TV show "Night Court".)
        
        The Dictionary of First Names says that Selma is from the
        Celtic, meaning "Fair" and From the Greek, meaning "a ship".
        Personal experience causes me to question this origin.
        
        First of all Kahlil and his mistress were both Turks and
        I find it difficult to believe that at the turn of the century
        she would have been given a name with Celtic origins.
        
        Second. I have been asked by several Finns if I am Finnish
        and Turks if I am Turkish because they thought Selma was
        a fairly common Finnish and Turkish name. For further
        edification, Finnish and Turkish are Finno-Ugric a subfamily
        of Uralic. Hungarian is also a member. In English, Finnish,
        Turkish and Hungarian are all related and about the only
        non-Indo-European languages in Europe and Asia.
        
        Therefore, I think Selma is Fino-Ugric, possibly meaning
        "happiness". Anybody find anything else.
        
        SelmaB.
        

    Selma,
    
    My babynames book, "Name Your Baby" by Lareina Rule, says that Selma
    is an English variation of Anselma, an Old Norse name meaning "divinely
    protected."
    
    -Tracy