Selim

seh-LEEM

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The name Selim means “safe, peaceful, flawless.” It comes from the Turkish language tradition.

Selim is the Turkish form of the Arabic name Salim, meaning 'safe' or 'peaceful.' Three Ottoman sultans bore this name, most notably Selim I 'the Resolute' who expanded the empire enormously, and Selim III who was a noted reformer and accomplished musician.

Two Wiktionary entries for Selim both point back toward the Arabic سليم (as in Salim): one describes it as borrowed from the Turkish salīm and notes the resulting surname is mostly found in Egypt, while the other says the surname derives from Selim/سليم but 'partly also from forms of Anselmi' — an unrelated European name. Neither source discusses the given name's use by Ottoman sultans, so the Selim I and Selim III history offered elsewhere isn't confirmed here.

Both retrieved sources describe Selim primarily as a surname rather than tracing its history as a given name, so nothing about its use as a first name — Ottoman or otherwise — can be confirmed from what's here.

• Sultan Selim I (Ottoman emperor)
• Sultan Selim III (Ottoman emperor and musician)
• Selim Palmgren (Finnish composer)

Sibling names that share Selim's rhythm and register without echoing it too closely.