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Silva

Girls' name

Forest, through Silvia

Silva has been given to 911 babies in the U.S. since 1892. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1969, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Silva, 2023

1 in 552,000

Silva over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Silva: meaning, origin, and history

Forest, through Silvia

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Silva means

Silva belongs to the name family reached through Silva → Silvia. Its meaning is “forest”.

Origin, language, and formation

Silva is used in Finnish, Lithuanian and Slovene.

Silva comes through Italian Silvia.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Silvia.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Silva is pronounced /ˈsilʋɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 901 girls were recorded with the name Silva between 1892 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1969; its best national rank was #1,638 in 1892.

In the United States, 10 boys were recorded with the name Silva between 2022 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 5 in 2022; its best national rank was #13,883 in 2023.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Silva?

Silva had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 552,000
6 of 3,314,783 births
Among girls only
1 in 267,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
382,940 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Silva sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 382,940 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Silva. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Silvas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Silva was born before 1966 — so the typical Silva is around 59 today.

Median birth year
1966
About 59 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
16.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
608
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 16.2% of all recorded uses (146).

Is Silva rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1969 (19)
Years since peak
56
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,638
1892

Spellings of Silva

Silva is not the most common spelling — Sylvia is, with 24.7% against Silva's 0.09%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Silva is used

Across 1910–2025, Silva was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 367,568 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Silva has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Silva around the world

Where Silva ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2001–2017
    #3,583
    in 2017
  • France
    1925–2004
    #5,436
    in 2004
  • South Australia
    1953–1953
    #449
    in 1953

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Silva by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,638
1892
Peak year
1969
19 that year
First recorded
1892
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
901
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#13,883
2023
Peak year
2022
5 that year
First recorded
2022
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
10
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Silva

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SylvaSilaSilverSilasSilvieSilvanaSilkaSilahNelvaBelvaShelvaDelvaSiloeSilenaShalvaSiljeSilviaMalvaVelvaSilkeAlvaSilvinaRosalvaSilpa

Sibling names for Silva

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Silva

Top names of 1969, Silva's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1892Girls' names starting with S