Sydney
A feminine name of French origin meaning "from Saint-Denis".
Name Census estimates that about 175,906 living Americans carry the first name Sydney. It sits at #288 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (95.0% of registrations). The average person named Sydney today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sydney births was 2000 (10,369 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sydney. 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 Sydney with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Sydney started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
176K
~ 1 in 1,949 Americans
Peak year
2000
10,369 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#288
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sydney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 169,165 people with the first name Sydney, which placed it at #328 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
#328
National first-name rank
People counted
169K
169,165 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
56.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sydney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sydney is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.6%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Sydney 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 Sydney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.5% · 126,081
- Black or African American9.6% · 16,206
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 10,981
- Two or more races6.0% · 10,230
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 4,787
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 880
Gender
Gender distribution for Sydney
Sydney leans heavily female at 95.0% of total registrations, but 9,383 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Sydney as a male name
- Ranked #4,292 in 2024
- 25 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1916 (205 births)
Sydney as a female name
- Ranked #288 in 2024
- 1,097 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (10,243 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sydney leans strongly female. 163,613 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 5,551 male bearers (3.3%).
Popularity
Sydney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sydney from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 77,286 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
Sydney 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 Sydney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sydneys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Sydney, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,473 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sydney
The name Sydney has its origins in the Old English language, tracing back to the 9th century AD. It is derived from the Old English words "Sið" meaning "path" or "journey" and "ēg" meaning "island" or "dry ground." The combination of these words is thought to have formed the place name "Sið-ēg," referring to an area of dry ground along a path or route.
The name Sydney is believed to have first emerged as a surname, with one of the earliest recorded instances being in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it was listed as "Sydenye." This surname likely referred to someone who lived near a particular location called "Sið-ēg," which may have been a settlement or a landmark along a well-traveled path.
As a given name, Sydney gained popularity in the late Middle Ages, particularly in England. One of the earliest known individuals with the name Sydney was Sir William Sidney (c.1482-1554), a prominent English courtier and politician during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Another notable figure was Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), an English poet, courtier, and soldier who was celebrated for his literary works, including the pastoral romance "Arcadia."
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name Sydney became associated with nobility and aristocracy in England. Several members of the influential Sidney family held titles and positions of power, such as Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (1563-1626), and Algernon Sidney (1623-1683), a prominent political theorist and opponent of absolute monarchy.
In the 18th century, Sydney Parkinson (1745-1771) was a notable Scottish botanical illustrator who accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage to the South Pacific. His detailed drawings and descriptions of the flora and fauna encountered during the expedition contributed significantly to the study of natural history.
Another famous bearer of the name was Sydney Smith (1771-1845), an English writer, philosopher, and Anglican cleric known for his wit and humor. He was a co-founder of the influential "Edinburgh Review" and a prominent social reformer of his time.
Throughout history, the name Sydney has been borne by various individuals from different walks of life, including writers, artists, politicians, and military figures. While its popularity has fluctuated over time, it remains a respected and well-recognized name with a rich historical legacy.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sydney
People
Sydney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sydney 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
Sydney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sydney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 175,906 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sydney 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 1,949 US residents.
Is Sydney a common name?
We classify Sydney as "Common". It ranks above 99.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 186,796 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sydney most popular?
The single biggest year for Sydney was 2000, when 10,369 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sydney 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 Sydney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 169,165 people with the name Sydney, or 56.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #328 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 Sydney 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 Sydney?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sydney leans strongly female. 163,613 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 5,551 male bearers (3.3%). 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 Sydney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sydney is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (9.6%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Sydney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sydney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.5% (126,081 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 Sydney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sydney a female name?
Yes, 95.0% of people registered as Sydney 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 Sydney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sydney 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 Sydney 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 have Sydney as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.