Sydney
Masculine · “wide island”
Sydney is given to both — 9,404 boys and 178,296 girls since 1880. See Sydney as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Sydney for a son is the older use — an English surname from Saint-Denis in France, or from a place name meaning wide island, and masculine in English for four centuries.
How old is the name Sydney?
Sydney was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Sydney alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 4,700 people named Sydney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sydney most popular?
Sydney peaked in 1913, reaching #340 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 4,517 places below that high. See the whole 1913 chart.
Where it comes from
From sid eg to Sydney
The story of Sydney
Sir Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan poet and soldier, made the name famous, and Algernon Sidney the republican theorist repeated the effect a century later; Sydney in Australia is named for a third. It was masculine in English for four hundred years. American feminine use overtook it from the 1980s, and masculine Sydney peaked around 1890.
Meaningscholars disagree
wide island; of Saint-Denis
Two routes. From the Old English sid, 'wide', and eg, 'island' or 'well-watered land' — a topographic surname. Or from Saint-Denis in Normandy, contracted in Anglo-Norman speech. Both are documented; the topographic reading is now generally preferred.
How the name formed
- sid eg
- Sidney
- Sydney
Related forms: Sidney · Saint-Denis
Pronouncing Sydney
SID-nee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Sydney and Sidney are said identically.
Nicknames for Sydney
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 boys named
- 1916205 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #340reached in 1913
- Change vs 2022
- −35.5%20 in 2025, from 31
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.
Sydney in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sidney in English — spelling variant
- Saint-Denis in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Georgia.
Sydneys among us
people named Sydney are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Sydney
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sydney
- #4857
- Sydney on the 2025 chart
- #762
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sydney went to 20 boys in 2025, but Sidney is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 166, which makes it the 762nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,095 places above the chart.
- Sidney146
- Sydney20
About 1 boy in 10,290 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 85,404 for Sydney 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
Fashion outlook
Sydney 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
Sydney beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sydney in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two documented traditions stand behind it, and both are interesting.
- An Elizabethan poet-soldier and a republican theorist carry it.
- Syd is a short, clean, immediately available form.
- In America the name now reads as overwhelmingly feminine.
- Sidney is the commoner masculine spelling.
- The masculine use is strongly period-coded to the nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Sydney
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sydneys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,700 people named Sydney are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sydney?
- Sydney is one of 2 recorded spellings. Sidney is the more common one — 146 births in 2025 against 20 for Sydney.
- How popular is the name Sydney in 2025?
- Sydney ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sydney?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Sydney — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sydney with classmates?
- Sydney will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sydney
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sydney? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sydney and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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