Silas
A surname probably formed from the biblical personal name Silas, though 19th-century writers treated the evidence as thin.
The #7,080 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 65,288 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname is best understood as coming from the personal name Silas, the New Testament apostolic name. The name itself is traditionally associated with the Greek and Latin biblical form Silas, though older surname scholars noted that medieval evidence for the surname was scarce. In short, it likely began as a surname taken from a given name rather than from a place or occupation.
History
Nineteenth-century surname writers disagreed about how old the surname was in England, and Bardsley specifically said he had not found medieval examples and thought an origin from the apostolic name was uncertain. Lower, by contrast, simply listed Silas as a personal-name surname, and later writers grouped it with other surnames derived from Christian given names. In modern usage it is a relatively uncommon surname, especially in the United States.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One older surname dictionary even treated Silcock as a diminutive of Silas.
From the historical record
“SIM SILAS. The personal name. SILBY. Sileby, a parish in Leicester- shire. SILCOCK. A diminutive of Silas. SILK. A parish in Lincolnshire, with the suffix of Willoughby. SILLER. Of recent introduction from Germany. A corruption of Schiller.”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom