Silvio
A masculine given name of Latin origin meaning "forest dweller" or "from the woods".
Name Census estimates that about 1,468 living Americans carry the first name Silvio. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Silvio today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Silvio births was 1922 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Silvio. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Silvio with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 233,484 Americans
Peak year
1922
86 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,083
Tracked since 1905
Census
Silvio in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,378 people with the first name Silvio, which placed it at #4,324 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,324
National first-name rank
People counted
4.4K
4,378 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
60.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Silvio
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Silvio is Hispanic at 60.6%. The next largest groups are White (35.8%) and Black (1.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Silvio described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Silvio at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino60.6% · 2,652
- White35.8% · 1,569
- Black or African American1.6% · 72
- Two or more races0.9% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 8
Popularity
Silvio: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Silvio from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 641 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Silvio by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Silvio during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Silvios live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Silvio, while Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 115 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Silvio
The given name Silvio originated from the Latin word "silva", which means "forest" or "woods". It was a common name among ancient Romans and is believed to have been derived from the Roman surname "Silvius", which was associated with the legendary founder of the city of Alba Longa, Silvius.
During the Roman era, the name Silvio was used by several notable figures, including Silvio Anneo Floro, a Roman historian who lived in the 1st century AD and wrote an epitome of Roman history. Another famous bearer of the name was Silvio Italico, a 4th-century Roman poet and orator.
In the Middle Ages, the name Silvio gained popularity in Italy and other parts of Europe. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the 12th century, when a Silvio Piccolomini served as the Bishop of Siena.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Silvio. Among them is Silvio Pellico (1789-1854), an Italian writer and patriot who spent years in prison for his involvement in the Italian unification movement. Another prominent figure is Silvio Gesell (1862-1930), a German merchant and economist known for his theories on free economic order.
In the 20th century, Silvio Berlusconi (born 1936) became one of the most famous bearers of the name. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy in four different terms and was a prominent businessman and media tycoon.
Other notable individuals with the name Silvio include Silvio Rodríguez (born 1946), a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitarist known for his influential role in the Nueva Trova movement, and Silvio Piola (1913-1996), an Italian mathematician renowned for his contributions to the field of differential geometry.
People
Silvio + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Silvio as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Silvio: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Silvio?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,468 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Silvio going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 233,484 US residents.
Is Silvio a common name?
We classify Silvio as "Rare". It ranks above 92.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,955 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Silvio most popular?
The single biggest year for Silvio was 1922, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Silvio is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Silvio in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,378 people with the name Silvio, or 1.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,324 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Silvio in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Silvio?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Silvio appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,380 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Silvio?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Silvio is Hispanic at 60.6%. The next largest groups are White (35.8%) and Black (1.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Silvio most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Silvio in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.6% (2,652 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Silvio in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Silvio a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Silvio in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Silvio still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Silvio in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Silvio can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Silvio?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.