Namebino · Girl names · Boy names
Girl's name · #300 in the US (2025) · Timeless
Few names move less than Sylvia — on the books since 1880, #300 in 2025, and dependable in between. Roughly 245,000 girls share it. In all that time it has never once missed a year of the national records.
Its relative popularity was strongest in the South in the 1940s and 1950s, and is strongest in the Midwest in 2020–2025.
Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 43 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.
See how Sylvia ranks in other countries and regions.
#279 in New Zealand (2025) · #430 in England & Wales (2025) · #530 in Norway (2025) · #769 in Scotland (2025) · #1,522 in Sweden (2025) · #554 in Canada (2024).
Among 1,652 notable people named Sylvia:
Medical professionals appear 1.82× more often than among typical names — e.g. Sylvia Fedoruk, Canadian medical physicist, curler and politician (1927–2012).
Together with its spelling variant Silvia (#1240), Sylvia would rank around #258 with about 1,200 births last year — the newborns split about 85/15 between Sylvia and Silvia.
Similar names: Sylvie · Frances · Shiloh · Gloria · Rosemary · Loretta
Browse more girl names — popularity, trends and eras for 5,700+ American names, free.