Silver
Derived from the English word for the grayish precious metal.
Name Census estimates that about 1,865 living Americans carry the first name Silver. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Silver today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Silver births was 2023 (75 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Silver. 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.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 183,782 Americans
Peak year
2023
75 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,368
Tracked since 1896
Gender
Gender distribution for Silver
Silver is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,212 total registrations, 509 (23.0%) were male and 1,703 (77.0%) were female.
Silver as a male name
- Ranked #4,530 in 2024
- 23 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (23 births)
Silver as a female name
- Ranked #3,368 in 2024
- 47 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (55 births)
Popularity
Silver: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Silver from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 527 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Silver remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Silver 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 Silver during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Silvers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Silver, while Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Silver
The name Silver is an English word name that has its origins in the Middle English period, derived from the Old English word "seolfor," which itself comes from the Proto-Germanic "*silubrā." The name is associated with the shiny, precious metal of the same name, which has been highly valued and sought after since ancient times.
Silver is not a traditional given name, and its use as a first name is relatively modern. It first gained popularity as a given name in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, perhaps inspired by the romantic imagery associated with the color and the metal's shimmering beauty. Silver was occasionally used as a surname before becoming a first name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of Silver as a first name is Silver King (1858-1927), an American wrestler and actor. Another notable figure with this name is Silver Burdett (1878-1966), an American publisher and founder of the Silver Burdett & Company publishing house.
In literature, one of the most famous characters named Silver is the one-legged pirate from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel "Treasure Island," published in 1883. The character's full name is John Silver, and he plays a pivotal role in the story as the crafty and cunning cook aboard the Hispaniola.
Another notable Silver from history is Silver Roy Barnes (1916-1964), an American professional baseball player who played outfield for several Major League Baseball teams, including the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Browns, in the 1940s and 1950s.
In the realm of music, Silver Apples was an influential American psychedelic electronic music group formed in the late 1960s by Simeon Coxe III (1938-2005) and Danny Taylor. Their experimental sound and incorporation of early synthesizers were ahead of their time and influenced numerous artists in the decades that followed.
While Silver is not a traditional name with a long historical pedigree, its association with the precious metal and its relatively modern usage as a given name have allowed it to carve out a unique place in the world of names. Its shimmering connotations and the romantic imagery it evokes have contributed to its enduring appeal as a first name choice.
People
Silver + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Silver 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
Silver: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Silver?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,865 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Silver 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 183,782 US residents.
Is Silver a common name?
We classify Silver as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,212 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Silver most popular?
The single biggest year for Silver was 2023, when 75 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Silver is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Silver a female name?
Yes, 77.0% of people registered as Silver 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.
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.