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Sylas vs Sylester

American parents have registered 8,966 Sylases since 1880, against 18 Sylesters. Sylas is still ahead, with 732 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sylas against Sylester, 1880 to 2025 0 200 400 600 800 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sylas Sylester

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 46 years in which either name was published, Sylas for 43 years and Sylester for 3 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Sylas Sylester
Total US births 8,96618
Most in one year 7327
Babies in 2025 732under 5
Estimated living today 8,90012
Median age today 771
Peak year 20251951
Best rank 440th boys3,066th boys
Rank in 2025 440thunranked
First recorded 19751951
Girls / boys 77 / 8,8890 / 18

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sylesters alive today are over 71; half the Sylases are over 7. That is 64 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sylas and Sylester.