Given name & surname
Sly
“cunning, devious”
Sly is used as a given name and a surname. One interpretation is “cunning, devious.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One interpretation is “cunning, devious.”
Where it comes from
Sly is a diminutive of Sylvester. Sylvester comes from Latin.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
In English usage, Sly is a diminutive of Sylvester.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1973. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Sly through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 101
- 101 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2025
- 10 babies
- 2025
- 10
- #8,160 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 10 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 8,160 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 231 as a first name in 2020; 3,071 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Sly’s family of names
In English usage, Sly is a diminutive of Sylvester. In English usage, Sly as a surname has a related form in SLEE. Sly has a related form in Sylvester.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
People named Sly
- Sly StoneAmerican musician, singer, guitarist, and record producer (1943–2025)
- Sly WilliamsAmerican basketball player (born 1958)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Sly, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.