Sylvester

Latin
"wood, forest"

Sylvester Origin and Meaning

The name Sylvester is a boy's name of English, Latin origin meaning "wood, forest".

This name of three early popes has been associated in recent years with a cocky cartoon cat ("Thufferin' thuccatash!") and the Italian Stallion hero of the Rocky and Rambo movies (who was born Michael) — and yet we think it just might be ready to move further back into the mainstream.

Sylvester was at its height in the 1920s, when it was in the Top 200, and hung on in the lower rungs of the ladder until 1994. Lately the name has been most visible as a surname — that of Sue Sylvester on Glee. Model Emily Ratajkowski named her son Sylvester Apollo in 2021.

Trivia tidbit--in the 1935 movie Sylvia Scarlett, the young Katharine Hepburn disguises herself as a boy named Sylvester — until she meets Cary Grant!

# 962 in the US

Sylvester Rank in US Top 1000

# 973 on Nameberry

Sylvester Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Sylvester Popularity

Famous People Named Sylvester

  • Sylvester Groth
    German actor
  • Popes Sylvester I
    III
  • Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart
    American musician, producer, and funk pioneer
  • Sylvester Churchill
    American Civil War colonel
  • Sylvester Samuels aka Lil Ru
    American rapper
  • Sylvester Croom
    American NFL football player and coach
  • Robert Sylvester "R." Kelly
    American R&B singer
  • Michael Sylvester Stallone
    American actor, director and producer
  • Sylvester Lefort (born Thomas La Ruffa)
    French pro wrestler
  • Sylvester McCoy (born Percy James Patrick Kent
    Smith), Scottish actor

Sylvester in Pop Culture

  • Sylvester the Cat
    Looney Tunes character
  • Sylvester Marcus
    character in movie "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World"
  • Sylvester "Slice" Walters
    character on TV's "Raising the Bar"
  • Sylvestre Munsey
    character from MK Robinson's "The Absolutely True Story of Exactly What Might Have Happened to Sylvestre Munsey"
  • Sylvester
    the Duke of Salford, character in "Sylvester" by Georgette Heyer
  • Sylvester Pemberton aka The Star
    Spangled Kid or Skyman, DC Comics superhero
  • Sylvester
    donkey in children's book "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" by William Steig
  • Sue Sylvester
    character on TV's "Glee"
  • Sylvester
    character in rap opera "Trapped In The Closet"
  • Sylvester
    character on TV show "Scorpion"