Sylvester

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Sylwester in PL Poland, ES Spain, NO Norway and 1 more, Silvester in FI Finland, SK Slovakia, CZ Czechia, Сильвестр in UA Ukraine, RU Russia and Sil'Vestr in LV Latvia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 6 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Sylvester is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name24K records spelled Sylvester4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Colombia, Argentina

  Also written Sylvestér, Sÿlvëstër

• Hungarian given name2.9K records spelled Sylvester2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Nigeria, Hungary, South Africa

  Also written Sÿlvester

74 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Sylvester is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Sylvester är ett latinskt namn med betydelsen ’skogrik, som hör till skogen’. En kortform är Sylve. En känd namnbärare är den amerikanske skådespelaren Sylvester Stallone (f. 1946). I den rikssvenska och den finlandssvenska almanackan 31 december, till minne av Silvester i, som var påve 314–35. Många nyårstraditioner har knutits till namnet Sylvester, t.ex. Sylvesternatten, Sylvesterbal m.m.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In German, from Latin silvestris 'of the woods'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Charles Edward Stuartb. 1720ITnot in their usual nameJacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France; (1720-1788)
• Sylvester Weaverb. 1908USAmerican television executive (1908–2002)
• Sylvester McCoyb. 1943GBScottish actor (born 1943)
• Sly Stoneb. 1943USnot in their usual nameAmerican musician, singer, guitarist, and record producer (1943–2025)
• Sylvester Stalloneb. 1946USAmerican actor and filmmaker (born 1946)
• Sylvester Ritterb. 1952USAmerican professional wrestler (1952-1998)
• Sylvester Turnerb. 1954USAmerican attorney, politician (1954–2025)
• Sylvester Grothb. 1958DEGerman actor and tenor
• R. Kellyb. 1967USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, songwriter, record producer, sex offender
• Karl-Theodor zu Guttenbergb. 1971DEnot in their usual nameGerman politician (CSU), former Minister of Economics, Minister of Defense

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 408 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sylvester?

We estimate roughly 92 thousand people bear Sylvester (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Sylvester have the most bearers?

We estimate about 53 thousand people bear Sylvester in Poland, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled sylwester.

Where is Sylvester most common?

Sylvester is densest in Poland, where the national register counts about 1 in 726 people carrying it.

How common is Sylvester compared with other names?

In Poland, Sylvester is the 165th most common given name of 66,904 given names recorded there.

Is Sylvester a male or female name?

Sylvester is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Sylvester mean?

Recorded meaning: A male given name from Latin used in English since the sixteenth century.