Silva

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

Silva, da Silva, and de Silva are surnames of Portuguese or Galician origin which are widespread in the Portuguese-speaking countries[1][2][3] including Brazil.[4][5] The name is derived from Latin silva ("forest" or "woodland").[citation needed] It is the family name of the House of Silva.

The name is 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,[6] and it was the 19th most common family name given to newborns between 1966 and 1990 in France.

Notable people and characters with these names include the following.

  1. ^ Saiba quais são os 3 sobrenomes mais comuns em 64 diferentes países. Archived 2013-08-17 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ © 2005 SOCIEDADE PORTUGUESA DE INFORMAÇÃO ECONÓMICA S.A. – SPIE (in Portuguese).
  3. ^ Os 100 Apelidos mais frequentes da População Portuguesa Archived 2013-02-28 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese).
  4. ^ O ProJovem é Silva, Santos... Archived 2013-10-17 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese).
  5. ^ Descubra como surgiram os Silva, os Araújo, os Fernandes, os Batista, os Carneiro... Archived 2013-10-22 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese).
  6. ^ Number of Da Silva in France