Sylvia
Meaning of Sylvia
Sylvia springs from the Latin word “silva,” meaning “forest,” and her story wanders through Italian groves where Rome’s legendary Rhea Silvia once cradled the twins Romulus and Remus. Over the centuries she has rustled through literature like a friendly breeze—Shakespeare serenades her in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and generations of poets have let her name flutter across their pages like silver leaves. In Spanish and Italian ears she sounds like SEEL-vyah, while English speakers hear a lilting SIL-vee-uh, but in any language she carries the same sun-dappled grace. American popularity charts show Sylvia as a quiet but persistent traveler: never the loudest songbird, yet year after year returning to the national canopy, recently perching near rank #328. Parents who choose Sylvia often say they love her blend of classical polish and woodland whimsy—a combination as irresistible as espresso savored in a Tuscan garden. All told, Sylvia is a name that offers any little girl both roots and wings.
Pronunciation
Spanish,Italian
- Pronunced as SEEL-vyah (/si̯el.ˈvja/)
English
- Pronunced as SIL-vee-uh (/ˈsɪl.vi.ə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Sylvia
| Sylvia Plath was an American poet and author who helped pioneer confessional poetry, wrote The Colossus, Ariel, and The Bell Jar, and received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. |
| Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst was an English feminist and socialist who organized working women in the East End of London, split with her suffragette family over World War I, and, though she welcomed the Russian Revolution and met Lenin, criticized the Bolshevik line. |
| Sylvia Rivera was an American gay and transgender rights activist and New York community worker who identified as a drag queen and later as transgender and marched with the Gay Liberation Front. |
| Sylvia Browne was an American writer and self proclaimed psychic medium who often appeared on TV and radio, including The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live, and hosted an online radio show on Hay House Radio. |
| Sylvia Earle is an American marine biologist and ocean explorer, the first female chief scientist of NOAA, a National Geographic Explorer at Large, and honored by Time magazine as its first Hero for the Planet. |
| Sylvia Mendez is an American civil rights activist and retired nurse who, at eight, helped win Mendez versus Westminster, ending school segregation in California and paving the way for the civil rights movement. |
| Sylvia Acevedo is an American engineer and business leader who led Girl Scouts of the USA from 2016 to 2020 after starting at NASA JPL on Voyager 2, holding executive roles at Apple, Dell, and Autodesk, founding tech ventures, earning Forbes America Top 50 Women in Tech honors, and expanding STEM and outdoor badges. |
| Sylvia Belle Chase was an American broadcast journalist who reported for ABC News program 20/20 from its launch until 1985, then anchored at KRON-TV in San Francisco before returning to ABC News in New York in 1990. |
| Sylvia Sidney was an American actress with a 70-year career, earning an Academy Award nomination and a Saturn Award for her role in "Beetlejuice." |
| American singer Sylvia achieved 11 top ten country hits in the 1980s, including the crossover pop success "Nobody." |
| Sylvia Tyson is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, and broadcaster, best known for the folk duo Ian & Sylvia and her membership in Quartette since 1993. |
| Sylvia Jones is a Canadian politician serving as Ontario's deputy premier and health minister, with a long tenure as an MPP since 2007. |
| Retired US Public Health Service rear admiral and former acting Surgeon General Sylvia Trent-Adams later led the University of North Texas Health Science Center, resigned amid controversy over unclaimed bodies, and became president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. |
| Sylvia Ann Hewlett is a prominent economist and author. |
| Sylvia Peters was an English actress and BBC presenter who introduced Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and advised her on the first televised Christmas message. |
