Silas
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "forest dweller".
Name Census estimates that about 62,802 living Americans carry the first name Silas. It sits at #81 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Silas today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Silas births was 2024 (4,124 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Damon (62,755).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Silas. 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 Silas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Silas is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 177 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Silas is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
63K
~ 1 in 5,458 Americans
Peak year
2024
4,124 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#81
Tracked since 1880
Census
Silas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 40,865 people with the first name Silas, which placed it at #1,030 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
#1,030
National first-name rank
People counted
41K
40,865 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Silas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Silas is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.4%) and Two or More Races (7.3%). 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 Silas 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 Silas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.0% · 29,018
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 4,672
- Two or more races7.3% · 2,982
- Black or African American7.1% · 2,910
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 720
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 563
Gender
Gender distribution for Silas
Out of the 70,949 babies given the name Silas since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Silas as a male name
- Ranked #81 in 2024
- 4,108 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (4,108 births)
Silas as a female name
- Ranked #7,188 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Silas appears almost entirely male. Of the 40,869 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Silas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Silas from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 29,692 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Silas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Silas 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 Silas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Silas' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Silas, while District of Columbia, Delaware, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,257 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Silas
The name Silas has its roots in ancient Aramaic, a Semitic language that was widely spoken in the Middle East during biblical times. It is derived from the Aramaic word "shila" or the Hebrew "Shelah," both meaning "forest" or "woods."
In the New Testament, Silas is mentioned as a prominent figure in the early Christian church. He accompanied the apostle Paul on his second missionary journey, traveling with him through parts of modern-day Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. This association with a key figure in the spread of Christianity likely contributed to the name's enduring popularity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Silas can be found in the Bible's Book of Acts, where Silas is described as a leading member of the church in Jerusalem in the first century AD. The name also appears in various early Christian writings and historical accounts from the ancient world.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Silas. One of the most well-known is Silas Marner, the protagonist of the 1861 novel by George Eliot (1819-1880). The character, a weaver wrongfully accused of theft, became a recluse until his life was transformed by the arrival of a young orphan girl.
Another famous Silas was Silas Deane (1737-1789), an American merchant and politician who played a key role in securing French support for the American Revolutionary War. He was one of the first diplomats appointed by the Continental Congress and helped negotiate treaties and secure supplies for the colonial forces.
In the world of literature, Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) was a renowned American physician and author known for his influential works on neurology and the psychological aspects of disability. His novel "Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker" (1897) was a bestseller and helped popularize the historical fiction genre.
Silas Lapham, the central character in William Dean Howells' 1885 novel "The Rise of Silas Lapham," was a fictionalized depiction of the self-made businessman in late 19th-century America. The novel explored themes of social mobility and the conflict between traditional values and the pursuit of wealth.
Finally, Silas Soule (1838-1865) was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War who famously refused to follow orders to participate in the Sand Creek Massacre of Native Americans in Colorado in 1864. His principled stand and subsequent testimony brought attention to the atrocities committed against indigenous people.
People
Silas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Silas 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
Silas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Silas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 62,802 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Silas 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 5,458 US residents.
Is Silas a common name?
We classify Silas as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 70,949 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Silas most popular?
The single biggest year for Silas was 2024, when 4,124 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Silas is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Silas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 40,865 people with the name Silas, or 13.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,030 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 Silas 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 Silas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Silas appears almost entirely male. Of the 40,869 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Silas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Silas is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.4%) and Two or More Races (7.3%). 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 Silas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Silas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (29,018 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 Silas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Silas a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Silas 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 Silas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Silas 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 Silas 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 common is the name Silas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.