"Selah" as a first name turns up with 1747 hits in the 1800-1890 census
indices at Ancestry.com.  771 of those are in New York. There is some
duplication, but then not all years, all counties or all states are always
included.  http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/census/ais/main.htm

 There are also 159 hits in the Social Security Death Index at
http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/, which covers people allegedly [and erroneously,
I'm sure] born since 1800, and died through 2002.  The first "Selah" is in
1869 OH, with 8 more in the 1870's [2 in NY].  I didn't check later
decades.

In the 1881 Canadian census, there are 13 first names spelled "Selah" [all
in Quebec and Ontario), and well over 200 spelled phonetically.

In the 1881 British census, there are 39 exact, and 200+ spelled
phonetically.
In the 1880 US census, there are 200+ spelled exactly, with 20 of those in
NY.  I didn't even try Soundex.
All three censuses above are available free at http://familysearch.org

At that same site, a search of the North American IGI shows 182+ Selah
[exact spelling], about equally male and female.

Mike RANSOM
Albany, Oregon


> -----Original Message-----
>
>Ok, this may be a stupid question, but was "Selah" a common first
> name in the 19th century?  I keep finding it in my records here,
> and I think it's being used as a male first name, but my only other
> recollection of it
> is as a kind of exclamation in the Bible. Does anybody have any
> information on this?