Sylvan
Sylvan is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 83 births. Its best rank was 555th, in 1912.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 830.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 1918103 births
- Best rank
- #555in 1912
- Since 1886
- 3,701people given the name
The story in the numbers
3,584 boys have been named Sylvan in the United States since 1886, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 103 births.
This is a comeback. After an early peak the name fell to a fraction of its former share, and it has been climbing again for the past decade.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1940, and the 1920s alone account for 18%. It has spent 30 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 117 girls have also been given it, 3.2% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Sylvan | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 12 | |
| 1890s | 39 | |
| 1900s | 77 | |
| 1910s | 585 | |
| 1920s | 660 | |
| 1930s | 391 | |
| 1940s | 278 | |
| 1950s | 178 | |
| 1960s | 108 | |
| 1970s | 105 | |
| 1980s | 127 | |
| 1990s | 132 | |
| 2000s | 215 | |
| 2010s | 330 | |
| 2020s | 347 |
In 1918, its biggest year
Sylvan was the 606th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1918 were John, William, James, Robert and Charles. See all of 1918.
Names that rose and fell with Sylvan
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Arnopeak 1915
- Ignatiuspeak 1920
- Florianpeak 1921
- Ferrispeak 2024
- Clovispeak 1917
- Hollispeak 1921
- Olenpeak 1922
- Harlandpeak 1922
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.