Sidney
Feminine · “of Saint-Denis”
Sidney is given to both — 24,785 girls and 84,202 boys since 1880. See Sidney as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Sidney is Saint-Denis, worn down. The Norman family took its name from a French place dedicated to the martyr, and English speech compressed it until the saint disappeared.
How old is the name Sidney?
Sidney was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Sidney alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 22,000 people named Sidney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sidney most popular?
Sidney peaked in 1999, reaching #258 nationally. Today it ranks #1872, 1,614 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Saint-Denis to Sidney
The story of Sidney
The Sidneys were an English gentry family — Sir Philip Sidney, the poet who coined Pamela, was one — and the surname crossed into given-name use in the eighteenth century for boys. Feminine use appeared in America in the nineteenth century and returned strongly in the 1990s, when the name was reread as a girls' name. Feminine Sidney peaked in the mid-1990s.
Meaningscholars disagree
of Saint-Denis
The usual reading derives the surname from the Norman place Saint-Denis, which English compressed to Sidney — Denis itself being from the Greek Dionysios. A competing account gives an Old English origin, from sidan eg, 'wide island'. Both are current and neither is decisive.
How the name formed
- Saint-Denis
- Sidney
Related forms: Sydney · Saint-Denis
Pronouncing Sidney
SID-nee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Sidney and Sydney are said identically.
Nicknames for Sidney
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19981,140 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #258reached in 1999
- Change vs 2022
- −36.4%105 in 2025, from 165
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sidney in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sydney in English — spelling variant
- Saint-Denis in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Sidneys among us
people named Sidney are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,307 born in 2025 was named Sidney
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sidney
- #1872
- Sidney on the 2025 chart
- #316
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sidney went to 105 girls in 2025, but Sydney and Cydney are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 987, which makes it the 316th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,556 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,628 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,307 for Sidney itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Clarice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sidney's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Clarice climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Clarice's path sketches the road Sidney is walking now.
Sidney sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sidney is headed
Sidney is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sidney beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sidney in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English gentry family stands behind it, including a major Elizabethan poet.
- The Saint-Denis derivation is a genuinely satisfying piece of compression.
- It works for either sex, with real records on both sides.
- The origin is genuinely split between a French place and an Old English one.
- Sydney is now the commoner spelling for girls, partly through the Australian city.
- It is closely dated to the 1990s in its feminine use.
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What they receive
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Sidney
Feminine · #1872 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sidneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 22,000 people named Sidney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sidney?
- Sidney is one of 3 recorded spellings. Sydney is the more common one — 873 births in 2025 against 105 for Sidney.
- How popular is the name Sidney in 2025?
- Sidney ranks #1872 among US girl names in 2025, with 105 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sidney?
- About 1 in every 15,307 US girls born in 2025 was named Sidney — 105 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sidney with classmates?
- Sidney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sidney
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rio#1872 · Alessa#1872 · Kasey#1872 · Judy#1872 · Vallie#1872 · Aleya#1872 · Karmen#1872 · Nairobi#1867
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sidney? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sidney and another name?
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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