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Sylas vs Sylvania

American parents have registered 8,966 Sylases since 1880, against 546 Sylvanias. Sylas is still ahead, with 732 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sylas against Sylvania, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sylas Sylvania

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 113 years in which either name was published, Sylvania for 71 years and Sylas for 42 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Sylas Sylvania
Total US births 8,966546
Most in one year 73218
Babies in 2025 732under 5
Estimated living today 8,900180
Median age today 767
Peak year 20251915
Best rank 440th boys1,800th girls
Rank in 2025 440thunranked
First recorded 19751881
Girls / boys 77 / 8,889546 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sylvanias alive today are over 67; half the Sylases are over 7. That is 60 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sylas and Sylvania.