Sylas
Masculine · “Of the forest”
Sylas is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 8,889 boys against 77 girls since 1880.
Sylas is the y-spelling of Silas, a name carried through the New Testament by Paul's traveling companion and revived in English by the Victorians. It keeps the long open first syllable and the soft ending that made the older spelling easy in the mouth — SY-lus, two beats, no clusters to trip over. The Silas line runs unbroken for two thousand years; this particular spelling of it is a recent American arrival.
How old is the name Sylas?
Sylas first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Sylas is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 8,800 people named Sylas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sylas most popular?
Sylas peaked in 2025, reaching #440 nationally. Today it ranks #440, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Sylas appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Silvanus to Sylas
The story of Sylas
The name enters the record in Greek, in the Acts of the Apostles, where Silas travels with Paul through Asia Minor and Greece and is jailed with him at Philippi. Latin Christianity linked that Silas to Silvanus, a name built on silva, "forest," and the short form stuck. English-speaking Protestants took Silas up after the Reformation, and it became a solid rural name on both sides of the Atlantic in the nineteenth century; Denmark took it up independently, where it remains a mainstream choice for boys. Sylas is the same name respelled with a y, an American habit of the last half-century applied to a very old name.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Of the forest" — or a Greek form of Saul, "asked for"
Silas is usually read as a shortened form of the Latin Silvanus, from silva, "wood, forest" — Paul refers to the same companion as Silvanus in his letters, which supports that route. A second serious reading takes Silas from the Aramaic form of Hebrew Sha'ul (Saul), "asked for, prayed for." Both accounts are held by scholars, and the name is older than the argument.
How the name formed
- Silvanus
- ΣίλαςSilas
- Silas
- Sylas
Related forms: Silas · Silas · Silvanus · Σίλας · Silas · Silas
Pronouncing Sylas
SY-lus
Stress on the first syllable, which rhymes with "my." The final syllable is a soft -lus, not -lass. The y changes nothing about how it is said.
Nicknames for Sylas
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 2025717 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #440reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +12.6%717 in 2025, from 637
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sylas in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Silas in English — spelling variant
- Silas in Danish — same name
- Silvanus in Latin — related form
- Σίλας in Greek — transliteration
- Silas in Portuguese — same name
- Silas in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Sylass among us
people named Sylas are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,382 born in 2025 was named Sylas
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sylas
- #440
- Sylas on the 2025 chart
- #60
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sylas went to 717 boys in 2025, but Silas and Cylas are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 5,421, which makes it the 60th most-given boys’ name of the year — 380 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 315 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,382 for Sylas itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jaron test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sylas's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jaron climbed just as high around 2001, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jaron's path sketches the road Sylas is walking now.
Sylas is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sylas is headed
Sylas should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sylas beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sylas in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Sounds identical to Silas, a name English speakers have known for centuries, so it needs no explaining aloud — only in writing.
- Two syllables with a clear stress on the first: it carries well across a playground and pairs easily with most surnames.
- A documented line back to the Greek of the New Testament, and through Silvanus to Latin.
- Ready-made short forms in Sy and Si, both with a long record of real use.
- The Silas form is in mainstream use in Denmark, Germany and Portuguese-speaking countries, so it travels.
- The y is the whole issue. Silas is the spelling most people default to, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections on forms, emails and coffee cups — manageable, but constant.
- This spelling's wave is very recent, so nearly everyone who has it is still a child. There are no grown-up Sylases to point to yet, which some families like and others find unmoored.
- The spelling also belongs to a character in a widely played video game, which may be the first association some people make now and a dated one later.
- Sylas and Silas will be read as the same name in conversation, so a Silas in the family or friend group makes for two boys with one sound.
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What they receive
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Sylas
Masculine · #440 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sylass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,800 people named Sylas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sylas?
- Sylas is one of 3 recorded spellings. Silas is the more common one — 4,639 births in 2025 against 717 for Sylas.
- How popular is the name Sylas in 2025?
- Sylas ranks #440 among US boy names in 2025, with 717 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sylas?
- About 1 in every 2,382 US boys born in 2025 was named Sylas — 717 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sylas with classmates?
- Sylas will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sylas
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sergio#441 · Jasai#439 · Jalen#442 · Mario#438 · Chance#442 · Malik#437 · Valentino#444 · Frederick#435
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sylas? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sylas and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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