Sylvester
A surname from the old personal name Sylvester, ultimately tied to the Latin for “wood” or “forest.”
The #1,901 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 16,339 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Sylvester comes from the medieval personal name Sylvester, itself from Latin Silvester, meaning “of the woods” or “forest-dweller,” from silva, “wood” or “forest.” In surname use, it is best understood as a patronymic or family-name form taken from a bearer of the Christian given name. Some 19th-century writers also linked it more loosely to a “woodman” sense, but the core idea is the same: a name connected with the forest.
History
The name is found in England by the 13th century in forms such as Silvestre and Sylvester, and it appears in medieval records as a personal-name surname rather than a place-name. It spread in Britain and later in the English-speaking world, with spellings shifting between Sylvester and Silvester. Because the given name was common in medieval Christendom, the surname arose independently in more than one family line.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same Latin root also lies behind the related classical and literary name Silvanus, another forest-associated name.
From the historical record
“Yorks Poll-Tax, A.D. 1379. SYLVESTER = Silvester, q.v. SYMCOX = SImoox, q.v. SYME = SIme, q.v. SYMES = SImes, q.v. SYMINGTON (Scot.-Eng.) Bel. to Symington (Ayr: 13th cent. Symondstona; Lanark:”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)