Silva
Meaning
from Latin silva, forest; the most common surname in Brazil, a Portuguese classic, and a feminine given name in Armenia
The story
Silva comes from the Latin silva, forest or woodland, and began as a Portuguese and Galician surname for people who lived near the trees. Portuguese colonizers carried it to Brazil, where it became, and remains, the single most common surname in the country, held by tens of millions. Part of that reach traces to a hard history: after the Lei Aurea abolished slavery in 1888, many newly freed people took Silva as they began life under their own names. The word lives as a first name too. In Armenia, Silva is a feminine classic, borne by the beloved twentieth-century poet Silva Kaputikyan, who was born Sirvard and chose it. A name that started as a patch of forest now belongs, more than almost any other, to a whole nation.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Silva has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
18,419 people · the #1,122 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 10,989 · median age 48
Among people named Silva living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 33 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Silva
People given the name Silva in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Silva deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Silva truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Silva fits with your family’s names and surname.
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