Selena

In Greek mythology, Selene was the daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and the sister of Helios, the sun, and Eos, the dawn.

She drove a silver chariot across the night sky drawn by 2 horses and fell in love with the shepherd Endymion, who was granted eternal sleep so that she could visit him each night.

The Roman equivalent was Luna, from whom the scientific designation of Earth’s satellite descends. Early references to the goddess appear in the Homeric Hymns, dated to the 7th century BC.

The name entered modern European usage through Italian and Spanish literature, with spellings including Selene, Selina, and Selena.

The English poet George Chapman used the Greek form in his early 17th-century translations of Homer, and the name appeared sporadically in English parish registers from the 18th century onward.

The Spanish-language form Selena became standard across Latin America during the 19th century.

According to U.S. Social Security Administration records, Selena appeared in the top 1000 intermittently from the 1940s and climbed sharply after the rise of the Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (1971-1995).

Following her death and the 1997 biographical film starring Jennifer Lopez, the name reached a peak rank within the top 100.

A second wave of interest followed the career of actress and singer Selena Gomez, born in 1992, keeping the name firmly in the top 300 through the 2010s and into the 2020s.