Sydni
A feminine variant of the name Sydney, of English origin meaning "from the wide island".
Name Census estimates that about 5,231 living Americans carry the first name Sydni. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sydni today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sydni births was 2000 (468 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sydni. 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 Sydni with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.2K
~ 1 in 65,524 Americans
Peak year
2000
468 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,528
Tracked since 1947
Census
Sydni in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,896 people with the first name Sydni, which placed it at #3,974 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
#3,974
National first-name rank
People counted
4.9K
4,896 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sydni
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sydni is White at 59.4%. The next largest groups are Black (25.3%) and Two or More Races (7.3%). 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 Sydni 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 Sydni at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.4% · 2,907
- Black or African American25.3% · 1,241
- Two or more races7.3% · 355
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 297
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 67
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 29
Popularity
Sydni: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sydni from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 2,503 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
Sydni 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 Sydni during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sydnis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. Texas, California, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Sydni, while Hawaii, District of Columbia, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 97 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sydni
Sydni is a feminine given name that originated from the English language, derived from the place name Sydney, itself named after the former British Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney in 1788. The name Sydney is thought to have originated from an Old English term meaning "from the well-watered land".
The name Sydni came into use as a variant spelling of Sydney in the early 20th century, with records showing its sporadic usage in the United States and Canada from around the 1910s onwards. One of the earliest recorded examples of the Sydni spelling can be found in the 1920 United States Census, where a woman named Sydni L. Jones, born around 1898, was listed as residing in Missouri.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Sydni. One such person was Sydni Deveraux (1927-2012), an American model and actress who appeared in several films and television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including roles in "The Bob Cummings Show" and "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet".
Another notable Sydni was Sydni Sterling (1919-2005), an American jazz singer and actress who performed with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Duke Ellington and Count Basie. She was also a regular performer at the famous Cotton Club in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance era.
In the field of literature, Sydni Walker (1935-2018) was a critically acclaimed African American poet and author, best known for her works exploring themes of race, identity, and social justice. Her poetry collections, such as "Lineage" and "Kin to the Dream", received widespread acclaim and numerous awards.
Sydni Berthier (1944-2021) was a renowned French classical pianist and composer, known for her interpretations of the works of Chopin, Debussy, and Ravel. She performed with some of the world's most prestigious orchestras and was widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of her generation.
In sports, Sydni Daniels (born 1989) is an American professional basketball player who has played in the WNBA for several teams, including the Los Angeles Sparks and the Chicago Sky. She was a standout player in college at the University of Connecticut, where she helped lead the team to two NCAA championships.
People
Sydni + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sydni 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
Sydni: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sydni?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,231 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sydni 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 65,524 US residents.
Is Sydni a common name?
We classify Sydni as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,353 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sydni most popular?
The single biggest year for Sydni was 2000, when 468 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sydni is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sydni in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,896 people with the name Sydni, or 1.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,974 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 Sydni 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 Sydni?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sydni appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,895 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Sydni?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sydni is White at 59.4%. The next largest groups are Black (25.3%) and Two or More Races (7.3%). 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 Sydni most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sydni in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.4% (2,907 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 Sydni in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sydni a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sydni 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 Sydni still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sydni 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 Sydni 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 common is the name Sydni?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Sydni at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.