Given name & surname
Sydney
“of the wide meadow”
Sydney is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “of the wide meadow.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “of the wide meadow.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
How it developed
In English use, Sydney is used as a variant of Sidney.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1880. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin. In English use, Sydney has an alternative spelling in Sidney. The history of Sidney gives this family its wider story. The poet and soldier Philip Sidney belongs to the surname’s history. Dickens’s Sydney Carton supplies a later literary association through the variant spelling Sydney, which may have encouraged nineteenth-century given-name use.
Combines direct and name-family evidence
Sydney through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 187,700
- 9,404 boys · 178,296 girls
- Most popular year
- 2000
- 10,369 babies
- 2025
- 893
- #348 for girls · #5,021 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −39%
- Cooling
Boys, girls and both
The balance of boys and girls given this name has shifted over time. Recent births are 2% boys.
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 873 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 348 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 39.4% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 10,243 in 2000. It also appeared in 20 birth records for boys in 2025. In 2025, California had the largest reported state-level birth count for girls with this name (93). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 169,164 as a first name in 2020; 811 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Sydney’s family of names
In English usage, Sydney has a diminutive in Syd. In English usage, Sydney has an alternative spelling in Sidney. In English usage, Sydney has a related form in Sidney.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 23
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 4
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Sydney
- Sydney SweeneyAmerican actress (born 1997)
- Sydney PollackAmerican film director, producer and actor (1934-2008)
- Sydney BrennerSouth African-British biologist, Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002 (1927–2019)
- Sydney McLaughlin-LevroneAmerican hurdler and sprinter (born 1999)
- Sydney ChaplinAmerican film and theater actor (1926-2009)
- Sydney ChapmanBritish mathematician and geophysicist (1888–1970)
- Sydney LerouxCanadian-born American soccer playerborn 1990
- Sydney ChaplinEnglish actor (1885-1965)
- Sydney GreenstreetBritish-American actor (1879-1954)
Characters named Sydney: Sydney Bristow (the television series Alias).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Sydney, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
India
“from the river; woman from India”
>99% girls
Hadley
“from the field of heather” · “from the heather meadow”
1% boys · 99% girls
Ainsley
“one's own meadow”
1% boys · 99% girls
Summer
“refers to the season; born in summer”
>99% girls
Savannah
“from the open, grassy plain”
>99% girls
Marley
“from the meadow near the lake”
13% boys · 87% girls
Bailey
Bailey is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “from the courtyard within castle walls; a public official.”
6% boys · 94% girls
Whitley
“from the white meadow”
15% boys · 85% girls