Comments (Usage Only)
In 2018, 55 is the most common age for an American (U.S.) Sylvester who is registered male with the Social Security Administration. It is the 1, 222nd most common male first name for living U.S. citizens.
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The name Sylvester was given to 73 boys born in the US in 2015.
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Looking at records of births and christenings in England from 16th to the 20th century, it seems that it was sometimes given to girls.
EXAMPLES (accessible via Ancestry & FamilySearch):
Sylvester Banes (christened in 1596)
Sylvester Ann Buer (born in 1858)
So in that sense, both Silvester and Sylvester were unisex names back in the olden days, though given more, slightly, to boys.
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EXAMPLES (accessible via Ancestry & FamilySearch):
Sylvester Banes (christened in 1596)
Sylvester Ann Buer (born in 1858)
So in that sense, both Silvester and Sylvester were unisex names back in the olden days, though given more, slightly, to boys.
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In response, maybe it's more of a case of 'boy's name given to a girl' than Sylvester being truly a unisex name? I know the difference between the two can be subtle and it can be difficult to draw a line between them, but this does seem like it might be closer to the 'boy's name on a girl' category.
I know in the American south there is a long history of girls being given a boy's name (sometimes as a single name and sometimes as a double-barreled name with a more feminine name. Like Carter-Anne or Dale-Mary. Usually the masculine name is a family name, sometimes a surname in the family), and we all know girls/women, or know stories of girls/women, given boys names because her parents had wanted or expected a boy, or perhaps because dad wanted a namesake, but it was unlikely that they would have more children.
My own great- grandmother's name was Archie. She was the last of 9 kids, all girls. Her sisters all had quite feminine, if dated, names. My great-grandmother was named Archie because it was the name they'd picked for a boy, and not only were they out of ideas for girl names, they also knew they were unlikely to have any more children, so no hope of a boy named Archie.
I've encountered other girls/women from the same time period named Archie in my genealogy research or while wandering old cemeteries, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that Archie was a unisex name in the American South at the turn of the century.
I think perhaps Sylvester falls in to this category as well. Not so much a unisex name as a masculine name that was occasionally given to girls.
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I know in the American south there is a long history of girls being given a boy's name (sometimes as a single name and sometimes as a double-barreled name with a more feminine name. Like Carter-Anne or Dale-Mary. Usually the masculine name is a family name, sometimes a surname in the family), and we all know girls/women, or know stories of girls/women, given boys names because her parents had wanted or expected a boy, or perhaps because dad wanted a namesake, but it was unlikely that they would have more children.
My own great- grandmother's name was Archie. She was the last of 9 kids, all girls. Her sisters all had quite feminine, if dated, names. My great-grandmother was named Archie because it was the name they'd picked for a boy, and not only were they out of ideas for girl names, they also knew they were unlikely to have any more children, so no hope of a boy named Archie.
I've encountered other girls/women from the same time period named Archie in my genealogy research or while wandering old cemeteries, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that Archie was a unisex name in the American South at the turn of the century.
I think perhaps Sylvester falls in to this category as well. Not so much a unisex name as a masculine name that was occasionally given to girls.
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The name Sylvester was given to 57 baby boys born in the US in 2012.
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https://forebears.io/forenames/sylvester