Name Generator

How popular is the name Sylvia?

Births per year, rank history and how many Sylvias are alive today.

Sylvia (female), once a common girls' name, is now an uncommon choice for new babies in England and Wales, ranked 426th in 2025 with 95 given the name. This spelling of the name peaked in 1934, when around 2,800 babies were given the name, the 18th most popular that year. It has declined since 1934; the 2025 figure is roughly 3% of its peak. Numbers have been rising in recent years. At least 82,000 babies have been named Sylvia in England and Wales since 1914. Figures before 1996 are estimates. Sylvia is one spelling of a name also recorded as Silvia; the combined figures below cover every spelling. Common short forms of Sylvia include Sylvie.

Across all spellings of the name, the Sylvia you are most likely to meet is around 83 years old. Half of all Sylvias born in England and Wales are between 64 and 87, and there are at least 43,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's roughly a 13% chance that at least one of them will be called Sylvia.

How many babies are named Sylvia each year?

Includes all spellings: Sylvia, Silvia. Figures before 1996 are estimates.

Where does the Sylvia spelling rank?

Where does the Silvia spelling rank?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.