Family name origins & meanings
- According to family tradition, this is an Americanization of an Italian name, Sillimandi; however, the latter is not identified as a family name in Italian sources. The form Sillivant suggests possible derivation from Irish Sullivan.
- Benjamin Silliman, one of the most influential scientists of his time in America, was born in Trumbull, CT, in 1779 and came from a prominent CT family of Yale graduates whose paternal ancestors were Italians named Sillimandi. They lived in Switzerland and emigrated to America through Holland with the great Puritan migration, eventually settling in Fairfield, CT, with a Daniel Sillivant showing in Fairfield Co. records in the mid 1600s. By 1690 the family name had been changed to Silliman.