Silva

For other uses, see Silva (disambiguation).
Silva
Coat of arms associated to Silva surname
Origin
Meaning "forest, woodland or jungle"
Region of origin Portugal
Other names
Variant form(s) Zilva

Silva is a surname in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Portugal and Brazil. Origin: Latin toponymic /natural world word silva, meaning "forest" or "woodland". It is the family name of the House of Silva.

The name is also widespread in Galician-speaking regions of Spain (mostly in Galicia) and even more so in regions of the former Portuguese Empire in the Americas (being the most common surname in Brazil), in Africa and Asia, notably in India and Sri Lanka. It is also quite common in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Movement of people has led to the name being used in many places. Due to emigration from Portuguese-speaking countries, Silva (and the variants Da Silva and De Silva) is the fifth most common surname in the French department of Val-de-Marne, outside Paris, and it was the 19th most common family name given to newborns between 1966 and 1990 in France. It is also the seventh most common surname (and the most common non-German, non-French) in Luxembourg. It is also among the top 20 surnames in Andorra, Angola, Cape Verde and Switzerland.

Geographical distribution

As of 2014, 64.7% of all known bearers of the surname Silva were residents of Brazil (frequency 1:57), 5.3% of Mexico (1:417), 5.1% of Portugal (1:37), 3.2% of Mozambique (1:152), 2.8% of Venezuela (1:192), 2.7% of the United States (1:2,361), 2.3% of Chile (1:136), 2.2% of Argentina (1:349), 2.2% of Peru (1:263), 2.0% of Colombia (1:424) and 1.1% of Guinea-Bissau (1:29).

In Brazil, the frequency of the surname was higher than national average (1:57) in the following states:

  1. Maranhão (1:24)
  2. Bahia (1:32)
  3. Roraima (1:32)
  4. Pará (1:35)
  5. Acre (1:38)
  6. Amapá (1:39)
  7. Alagoas (1:39)
  8. Sergipe (1:40)
  9. Amazonas (1:43)
  10. Rio Grande do Norte (1:47)
  11. Pernambuco (1:51)
  12. Goiás (1:53)
  13. Paraíba (1:53)
  14. Piauí (1:54)
  15. Ceará (1:55)
  16. Federal District (1:55)

Arts

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Surname

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Sports

Many people on this list are not generally known as Silva.

Auto racing

Basketball

Beach volleyball

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Brazil

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Others

Croatia

England

Equatorial Guinea

France

Paraguay

Portugal

Spain

Sri Lanka

Uruguay

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Fictional characters

See also