Sydnee
A feminine name derived from the place name Sydney, meaning "wide meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 8,049 living Americans carry the first name Sydnee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sydnee today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sydnee births was 2003 (506 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sydnee. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Sydnee with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.0K
~ 1 in 42,583 Americans
Peak year
2003
506 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,457
Tracked since 1945
Census
Sydnee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,447 people with the first name Sydnee, which placed it at #3,006 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,006
National first-name rank
People counted
7.4K
7,447 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sydnee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sydnee is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.9%) and Hispanic (6.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Sydnee described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Sydnee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.7% · 5,041
- Black or African American16.9% · 1,258
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 513
- Two or more races6.1% · 454
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 121
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 60
Popularity
Sydnee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sydnee from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,842 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sydnee by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Sydnee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sydnees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. Texas, California, Utah recorded the most babies named Sydnee, while Connecticut, South Dakota, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 151 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sydnee
The name Sydnee is a modern variant of the English name Sydney, which originated as a surname derived from the French place name "Saint-Denis". This name traces its roots back to the 3rd-century Christian martyr Saint Denis, who was the first bishop of Paris.
The name Sydney itself has been in use since the Middle Ages, with one of the earliest recorded examples dating back to 1279, when a person named Sydnee de Albaniaco was mentioned in historical records from England. Over the centuries, the name Sydney became popular in England and was later adopted as a given name.
While the name Sydney has been associated with several notable historical figures, the specific spelling variation "Sydnee" is relatively modern and has fewer documented instances from earlier eras. However, some examples of individuals who bore this particular spelling include Sydnee Strickland (1698-1774), an English merchant and philanthropist, and Sydnee Wainwright (1809-1892), a British author and poet.
Another notable bearer of the name Sydnee was Sydnee Goldberg (1875-1949), a German-American social worker and activist who campaigned for women's rights and labor reform in the early 20th century. Additionally, there was Sydnee Mortimer (1915-2003), an Australian artist and painter known for her landscapes and portraits.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals with the name Sydnee was Sydnee Linson (1941-2018), an American actress and comedian who appeared in numerous television shows and films throughout her career. She was best known for her roles in the sitcoms "The Jeffersons" and "227".
Despite its relatively modern spelling, the name Sydnee has a rich historical background that can be traced back to its French and English origins. Its association with notable figures across various fields and time periods highlights the enduring appeal and versatility of this name.
People
Sydnee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sydnee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sydnee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sydnee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,049 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sydnee going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 42,583 US residents.
Is Sydnee a common name?
We classify Sydnee as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sydnee most popular?
The single biggest year for Sydnee was 2003, when 506 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sydnee is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sydnee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,447 people with the name Sydnee, or 2.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,006 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Sydnee in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Sydnee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sydnee appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,449 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Sydnee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sydnee is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.9%) and Hispanic (6.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Sydnee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sydnee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.7% (5,041 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Sydnee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sydnee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sydnee in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Sydnee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sydnee in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Sydnee can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Sydnee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.