Sydney

What Sydney means

Variant of Sidney, meaning “wide + island”

spelling variant of Sidney || From Old English *Sīdaneġ, the name of a place in Surrey, from sīd (“wide”) + eġ (“island”).

Source: Wiktionary, “Sydney” (revision 94543850) and “Sidney” (revision 94543516), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Sydney?

US: Falling: down from #122 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #330 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 2000, when 10,243 girls got the name (#23 that year). First in the US records in 1886.

How common

• About 1 in 1,841 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,677 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 1,491 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in DC (4.46 per 1,000 girls), DE (2.66 per 1,000 girls), RI (2.04 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Sydney is #348 in the US and #295 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 97.8% of US babies named Sydney were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

Wiktionary only lists the US pronunciation so far.

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Sidney105 US · 25 E&W
• Sydnee14 US
• Stoney13 US
• Cydney9 US
• Sydni8 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

Spelling variants on Wiktionary

• Sidney
• Sidny
• Cidnee
• Cidney
• Cydni
• Cydnee
• Cydnie
• Cydney

Listed as alternative forms on Wiktionary.

Nicknames

• Syd

Listed on Wiktionary under “pet forms”.

If you like Sydney

Girls

• Cassidy#541“descendant of Caiside”^*
• Leslie#712“garden of hollies”^*
• Haley#861“hay field”^*
• Brooke#313Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1996, with 6,724 babies; 972 in 2025
• Paige#346possibly “servant”^*
• Mackenzie#228“son, descendant + of Coinneach”^*

For a brother

• Skyler#783Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #360 in 2015, #783 in 2025
• Tanner#475From a surname for “a tanner”^*
• Cameron#76“crooked, bent + nose”^*
• Brock#810Variant of Brook, meaning “swamp, marsh”^*
• Devin#548“fortuneteller”^*
• Donovan#495“descendant of (a person named) brown & black”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under From a surname, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Sydney’s. Rank is US 2025.