Sydney
A variant of Sidney, from an English surname tracing either to the Norman place Saint-Denis or to Old English words for a wide island; the Australian city was named for a British official.
Sydney in 2025
Sydney was given to 893 babies in the United States in 2025, making it the 717th most popular name of the year. That is roughly one in every 3,713 babies born.
The history of Sydney
Sydney reached its highest point in 2000, when 10,369 babies were given the name, ranking 61st that year.
Across the 146 years of records since 1880, 187,700 babies have been named Sydney. Half of them were born before 2001, which places the name's centre of gravity with Generation Z.
Sydney has switched sex over its history: it went mostly to boys in its early decades, and goes mostly to girls today.
Sydney by decade
| Decade | Babies named Sydney | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 151 | 766 |
| 1890s | 184 | 977 |
| 1900s | 299 | 767 |
| 1910s | 1,706 | 682 |
| 1920s | 1,615 | 878 |
| 1930s | 1,625 | 842 |
| 1940s | 2,327 | 770 |
| 1950s | 2,153 | 879 |
| 1960s | 1,850 | 1,157 |
| 1970s | 1,285 | 1,468 |
| 1980s | 5,044 | 433 |
| 1990s | 56,774 | 63 |
| 2000s | 77,288 | 61 |
| 2010s | 28,590 | 156 |
| 2020s | 6,809 | 514 |
Where Sydney is heading
Sydney has fallen 67% over the past decade, from 2,710 babies in 2015 to 893 in 2025.
Names like Sydney
Names that rose and fell at the same time as Sydney.