Sylvia
Sylvia proper noun: a female given name from Latin, a popular spelling variant of Silvia. Also the abbreviation of Princess Rhea Silvia.
Proper noun
Sylvia
- A female given name from Latin, a popular spelling variant of Silvia.
- What lovely names for girls there are!
There's Stella like the Evening Star,
And Sylvia like a rustling tree, […]1933, Eleanor Farjeon, “Girls' Names”, in Over the Garden Wall, Faber and Faber, page 91 - In the brouhaha over the reappointment of Superior Court Judge Sylvia Pressler, we organized massive support - telegramming, telephoning and writing to encourage the State Senate to exercise its advise and consent function responsibly.1984 August 5, “Women Lawyers Unit Describes Its Role”, in The New York Times
- What lovely names for girls there are!
- A minor city in Reno County, Kansas, United States.
- 87 Sylvia, a main belt asteroid; named for Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus.
Also used as
Sylvia is also the abbreviation of Princess Rhea Silvia.
Origin of Sylvia
Feminine form of a Medieval form of Silvius, from Latin silva (“forest”). In myths, Rhea Silvia was the mother of famous twins Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. 6th-century saint Silvia was the mother of the pope Gregory the Great.
Phrases with Sylvia
Questions about Sylvia
- What does Sylvia mean?
- Sylvia means a female given name from Latin, a popular spelling variant of Silvia.
- What part of speech is Sylvia?
- Sylvia is a proper noun.
Words near Sylvia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Sylvia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Sylvia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sylvia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.