Sylvan — #1902 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Sylvan

The Social Security Administration has registered 3,584 babies named Sylvan between 1886 and 2024, spanning 139 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Sylvan currently holds the #1902 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1918, when 103 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Sylvan performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 660 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Sylvan shows notable generational variation in parental adoption. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Pennsylvania, which accounts for 341 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by New York and Maryland. In total, SSA state-level files list Sylvan in 17 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Sylvan in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 3,584 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.