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Sylester vs Sylus

American parents have registered 1,244 Syluses since 1880, against 18 Sylesters. Sylus is still ahead, with 66 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sylester against Sylus, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sylester Sylus

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 31 years in which either name was published, Sylus for 28 years and Sylester for 3 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Sylester Sylus
Total US births 181,244
Most in one year 784
Babies in 2025 under 566
Estimated living today 121,200
Median age today 7110
Peak year 19512013
Best rank 3,066th boys1,733rd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,167th
First recorded 19511998
Girls / boys 0 / 180 / 1,244

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 Sylesters alive today are over 71; half the Syluses are over 10. That is 61 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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