Sylvia

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Silvia in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, MX Mexico and 12 more, סילביה in IL Israel, FR France, Сильвия in FI Finland, RU Russia and Силвия in BG Bulgaria.

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 16 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◐

Sylvia is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name671K records spelled Sylvia20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, France, Brazil, Chile

  Languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese

  Also written Sýlvìa, Sylvía, Sylviä, S̶y̶l̶v̶i̶a̶, Sýlvia

• a separate given name107K records spelled Sylvia2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy

  Also written Sylvía

• Swahili given name78K records spelled Sylvia6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Kenya, South Africa, Philippines

  Languages: Swahili, Southern Sotho, Nyanja

  Also written Sylvía

• Indonesian given name21K records spelled Sylvia3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Malaysia, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written 'Sylvia

• Lao given name3.8K records spelled Sylvia11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, Chile

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written Silvia, ซิลเวีย, ซัลเวีย, Sílvia, ซลเวย

71 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●

Sylvia is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Variant spelling of pSilvia. It is now rather more common than the plain form.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, A female given name from Latin, a popular spelling variant of Silvia.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In German, weibl. Vom., sprachlich unrichtige, aber häufig gebrauchte Schreibweise von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Swedish, Sylvia är ett latinskt namn, liksom → Silvia en femininform till Silvius, bildat till latinets silva ’skog’. Rhea Silvia var enligt myten mor till Roms grundläggare Romulus och Remus. I både den rikssvenska och finlandssvenska almanackan 8 augusti.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• English: variant, respelled for elegance, of SILVIA . It is now rather more common than the plain form.

  as a word

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●

• Sylvia Pankhurstb. 1882GBEnglish feminist and socialist (1882–1960)
• Sylvia Sidneyb. 1910USAmerican actress (1910–1999)
• Sylvia Milesb. 1924USAmerican actress (1924-2019)
• Sylvia Plathb. 1932USAmerican poet and writer (1932–1963)
• Sylvia Earleb. 1935USAmerican oceanographer
• Silvia Sommerlathb. 1943SEnot in their usual namequeen consort of Sweden
• Silvia Cartwrightb. 1943NZnot in their usual nameNew Zealand viceroy, jurist
• Sylvia Kristelb. 1952NLDutch actress, model, recording artist (1952-2012)
• Silvia Saintb. 1976CZnot in their usual nameCzech pornographic actress
• Sylvia Hoeksb. 1983NLDutch actress (born 1983)

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 · 1,402 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sylvia?

We estimate roughly 742 thousand people bear Sylvia (counting its spellings and scripts) across 11 countries in our records.

In which country does Sylvia have the most bearers?

Sylvia is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled silvia.

Where is Sylvia most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Sylvia is densest in Poland — about 1 in 210 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.

How common is Sylvia compared with other names?

In Argentina, Sylvia is the 61st most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Sylvia a male or female name?

Sylvia is a female 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 Sylvia mean?

Recorded meaning: From Latin silva, ‘wood’ or ‘forest’; also the name of a sixth-century saint, mother of Pope Gregory the Great.