Silva Family History
Silva Name Meaning
Portuguese Galician and Italian: habitational name from any of the many places called Silva in Portugal Galicia (Spain) and Italy or a topographic name from (Old) Portuguese and (Old) Galician silva ‘wood’ later ‘bramble’. Compare Da Silva and Silba . Jewish (Sephardic): adoption of the Iberian surname (see 1 above) at the moment of conversion to Roman Catholicism. After the return to Judaism (generations later) some descendants retained the name their families used as Catholics.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022