How common is the surname Sylvester?

18,896 people in the United States had the surname Sylvester in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,339 Americans. It ranked 1,901st of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Sylvester?

William Sylvester, American film actor (1922-1995), followed by Mike Sylvester.

Where is the surname Sylvester most common?

Wikidata records people named Sylvester in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hungary.

How do you pronounce Sylvester?

Sylvester is /sɪlˈvɛstɚ/, 3 syllables.

Is the surname Sylvester getting more or less common?

More common. 18,445 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,896 in 2010, up 2.4%.

Is Sylvester also a first name?

Yes. Sylvester is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.

The surname Sylvester

A Latin surname, carried by 18,896 people in the United States.

Pronounced /sɪlˈvɛstɚ/ 3 syllables Soundex S412 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Sylvester is more common than 98.8% of them.

Origin

Latin origin

Borrowed from Latin sylvester (“woody, rural”) from silva (“wood”); name of a saint whose feast day falls on December 31.

One of 91 Latin surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 18,896 people named Sylvester in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 16,339 Americans. That is up 2.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 18,445.

#1,901

rank among US surnames

18,896

people in 2010

6.4

per 100,000 Americans

+2.4%

change since 2000 (was #1,784)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,892	Pettit	19,004	16,246
#1,893	Bateman	19,001	16,249
#1,894	Pulido	18,942	16,300
#1,895	Roche	18,940	16,301
#1,896	Tobin	18,932	16,308
#1,897	Zaragoza	18,908	16,329
#1,898	Isaac	18,903	16,333

Who is named Sylvester

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

73% of people named Sylvester identified as white (not Hispanic), 21% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

White (not Hispanic) 73%
Black (not Hispanic) 21%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
Two or more races 1.9%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.9%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.8%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Sylvesters

5 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

William Sylvester
American film actor (1922-1995)
Mike Sylvester
American-Italian basketball player and coach, born 1951
Harold Sylvester
American actor, born 1949
Charles Sylvester
British civil engineer and chemist, 1774–1828
János Sylvester
16th-century Hungarian figure of the Reformation, 1504–1552

Notable Sylvesters come mostly from the United States (3), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1) and Hungary (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Sylvester

Sylvester has the Soundex code S412, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code S412.

Other Latin surnames

All 91 Latin surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Sylvester come from?: Borrowed from Latin sylvester (“woody, rural”) from silva (“wood”); name of a saint whose feast day falls on December 31.
How common is the surname Sylvester?: 18,896 people in the United States had the surname Sylvester in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 16,339 Americans. It ranked 1,901st of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Sylvester?: In the 2010 Census, 73% of people named Sylvester identified as white (not Hispanic), and 21% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Sylvester?: William Sylvester, American film actor (1922-1995), followed by Mike Sylvester.
Where is the surname Sylvester most common?: Wikidata records people named Sylvester in the United States, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hungary.
How do you pronounce Sylvester?: Sylvester is /sɪlˈvɛstɚ/, 3 syllables.
Is the surname Sylvester getting more or less common?: More common. 18,445 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 18,896 in 2010, up 2.4%.
Is Sylvester also a first name?: Yes. Sylvester is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.