Sybil comes from the Greek Sibylla, the title of the prophetesses of the ancient world, and so means "prophetess" or "oracle". It was popular in medieval England and again around 1900, and the character Lady Sybil Crawley in Downton Abbey brought it back to attention. In the United States Sybil ranked number 6769 in 2000 and has climbed over the past decade, from number 2122 in 2015 to number 1426 in 2025, its best rank this century.