Silas (name) Silas (name) Silas is a common given name and a lesser-known surname. It is a cognate of Silvanus. Silas as a name today comes from the early Christian disciple Silas. He is consistently called "Silas" in Acts, but the Latin Silvanus, which means "of the forest," is always used by Paul and in the First Epistle of Peter; it is likely that "Silvanus" is the Romanized version of the original "Silas," or that "Silas" is the Greek nickname for "Silvanus." It has been suggested that Silas is the Greek version of the Aramaic "Seila," a version of the Hebrew "Saul".
Christian name sense of "given name": Christian names were imposed for the distinction of persons, surnames for the difference of families. In more modern times, the terms have been used interchangeably with given name, first name and forename in traditionally Christian countries, and are still common in day-to-day use. Strictly speaking, the Christian name is not merely the forename distinctive of the individual member of a family, but the name given to the person (generally a child) at his or her christening or baptism. In pre-Reformation England, the laity was taught to administer baptism in case of necessity with the words: "I