Sylvie
From French meaning "dweller in the woods".
Name Census estimates that about 7,132 living Americans carry the first name Sylvie. It sits at #360 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sylvie today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sylvie births was 2024 (868 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sylvie. 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 Sylvie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Sylvie is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
7.1K
~ 1 in 48,059 Americans
Peak year
2024
868 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#360
Tracked since 1909
Census
Sylvie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,590 people with the first name Sylvie, which placed it at #3,250 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
#3,250
National first-name rank
People counted
6.6K
6,590 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sylvie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sylvie is White at 75.4%. The next largest groups are Black (11.0%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Sylvie 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 Sylvie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.4% · 4,971
- Black or African American11.0% · 723
- Two or more races4.6% · 305
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.4% · 291
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 286
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 14
Popularity
Sylvie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sylvie from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 3,187 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sylvie 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 Sylvie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sylvies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, New York, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Sylvie, while Mississippi, District of Columbia, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 115 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sylvie
The name Sylvie originates from the French language and culture, and it is a feminine form of the Latin name Silvius. The name Silvius is derived from the Latin word "silva," which means "forest" or "woodland." This suggests that the name Sylvie may have initially been associated with a person who lived in or near a forest.
The earliest recorded use of the name Sylvie can be traced back to the Middle Ages in France. During this period, it was a popular name among the French nobility and upper classes. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sylvie de la Rochefoucauld (1508-1570), a French noblewoman and the wife of Louis d'Estouteville, a prominent military leader.
In literature, the name Sylvie appears in several works from the 17th and 18th centuries. For instance, the French writer Honoré d'Urfé included a character named Sylvie in his famous pastoral romance, "L'Astrée," published in 1627. Additionally, the 18th-century French philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau featured a character named Sylvie in his novel "La Nouvelle Héloïse."
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Sylvie. One such individual was Sylvie de Souvré (1572-1624), a French courtier and mistress of King Henry IV of France. Another was Sylvie Monod-Broca (1908-1976), a French actress and writer known for her roles in several French films during the 1930s and 1940s.
In the 20th century, the name Sylvie gained popularity beyond France, particularly in English-speaking countries. One of the most famous bearers of the name was Sylvie Vartan (born 1944), a French singer and actress who achieved international success with her hit songs and appearances in several French films.
Another notable Sylvie was Sylvie Guillem (born 1965), a French ballet dancer widely regarded as one of the greatest ballerinas of her generation. She was a principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet and the Royal Ballet in London, and she was renowned for her exceptional technical abilities and expressive performances.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Sylvie, a name with roots in the French language and culture, and a name that has been associated with women from diverse backgrounds, including nobility, literature, the arts, and entertainment.
People
Sylvie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sylvie 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
Sylvie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sylvie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,132 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sylvie 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 48,059 US residents.
Is Sylvie a common name?
We classify Sylvie as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,342 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sylvie most popular?
The single biggest year for Sylvie was 2024, when 868 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sylvie is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sylvie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,590 people with the name Sylvie, or 2.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,250 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 Sylvie 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 Sylvie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sylvie appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,588 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Sylvie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sylvie is White at 75.4%. The next largest groups are Black (11.0%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Sylvie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sylvie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.4% (4,971 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 Sylvie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sylvie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sylvie in the SSA data are female. 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 Sylvie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sylvie 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 Sylvie 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 are named Sylvie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.