Sylvia Girl
How popular is Sylvia?
#300 girl name in 2025
1,017 baby girls were named Sylvia in the US in 2025, making it the 300th most popular girl name.
Sylvia popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #300 for girls (▲ 61 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 1,017 girls |
| 10-year trend | Rising fast (+54% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #484 in 2015, #501 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1937 (4,371 girls) |
| Highest rank | #50 in 1937 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.7% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Sylvia counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Sylvia family of names ranked #278 for girls in 2025 (#311 the year before), with 1,199 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Sylvia | 1,017 | 85% |
| Silvia | 182 | 15% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Sylvia is most popular
Babies named Sylvia per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Vermont: 2.1 per 1,000 (10 girls)
- Wisconsin: 1.6 per 1,000 (161 girls)
- Minnesota: 1.5 per 1,000 (158 girls)
- Montana: 1.4 per 1,000 (19 girls)
- Pennsylvania: 1.3 per 1,000 (302 girls)
Sylvia by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,109 | #161 |
| 1890s | 3,025 | #130 |
| 1900s | 5,559 | #93 |
| 1910s | 25,655 | #67 |
| 1920s | 26,841 | #85 |
| 1930s | 33,011 | #50 |
| 1940s | 37,288 | #62 |
| 1950s | 39,540 | #97 |
| 1960s | 28,621 | #121 |
| 1970s | 12,614 | #189 |
| 1980s | 9,323 | #238 |
| 1990s | 6,390 | #322 |
| 2000s | 5,440 | #496 |
| 2010s | 6,046 | #482 |
| 2020s | 4,608 | #300 |
Girl names about as popular as Sylvia
Questions
- Is Sylvia a boy or girl name?
- Sylvia is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Sylvia were girls.
- How popular is the name Sylvia?
- 1,017 baby girls were named Sylvia in the US in 2025, making it the 300th most popular girl name.
- When was Sylvia most popular?
- Sylvia peaked in 1937, when 4,371 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #50 in 1937.
- How many people are named Sylvia?
- 245,978 babies have been named Sylvia in the US since 1880. We estimate about 134,856 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 66.
- Where is Sylvia most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Sylvia was most common in Vermont, at 2.1 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.