Sylvain
Sylvain was given to 5 boys in 2025, #13,653 among boys’ names; 92 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sylvain by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sylvain mean?
Wiktionary, French section
Sylvain is “a male given name, equivalent to English Silvanus”
/sil.vɛ̃/
Meaning: Wiktionary, French section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sylvain?
#13,653 among boys’ names, 2025
Sylvain entered the boys’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #13,653 in 2025.
10 babies in 1967, the peak
Sylvain peaked in 1967, when 10 boys were given it, #2,749 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 50% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #13,653 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 5 | #13,822 | 2.9 |
| 1996 | 5 | #10,344 | 2.6 |
| 1995 | 5 | #10,127 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 5 | #9,965 | 2.5 |
| 1989 | 5 | #9,063 | 2.5 |
| 1983 | 5 | #7,199 | 2.8 |
| 1973 | 8 | #4,015 | 5.1 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,652 | 3.1 |
| 1971 | 6 | #4,850 | 3.4 |
Every recorded year (16)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | 6 | #4,094 | 3.5 |
| 1967 | 10 | #2,749 | 5.7 |
| 1966 | 7 | #3,504 | 3.9 |
| 1964 | 5 | #4,542 | 2.5 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,590 | 2.4 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,487 | 2.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Sylvain a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sylvain has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 16 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sylvain: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sylvain, and how old are they?
An estimated 81 Americans named Sylvain and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,002 people named Sylvain (14 women and girls, 988 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 74 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 4,058 babies since 1880, Sylvain is the third most given (2.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 126 babies (4.0%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Sylvain
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1950-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Efrem | 1,584 |
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Sylvain and names like it
- Compare Sylvain and SylvanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sSylvain peaked in 1967.
- French namesWiktionary’s origin for Sylvain: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1967The year the most babies were named Sylvain.
- Names starting with SMost given first.