Sydney

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●(measured from records)

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Sydney is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Hindi given name20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, South Africa

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Bangla

  Also written Sidney, Sidni, Sidani, Siddni, সিডনি

72 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Sydney is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, A major port city, the state capital of New South Wales, Australia, and the most populous city in Australia.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, city, Australia; pers. name

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In French, Nom anglais devenu prénom; usage mixte.

  as a name·Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

• English: variant of SIDNEY . It was a medieval practice to write y for i , for greater clarity since i was easily confused with other letters.

  as a word

• In Afrikaans, Sydney (a major port city, the state capital of New South Wales, Australia, and the most populous city in Australia)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Sydney Greenstreetb. 1879GBBritish-American actor (1879-1954)
• Sydney Chaplinb. 1885GBEnglish actor (1885-1965)
• Sydney Lassickb. 1922USactor (1922-2003)
• Peter Lawfordb. 1923GBnot in their usual nameBritish actor (1923–1984)
• Sydney Chaplinb. 1926USAmerican film and theater actor (1926-2009)
• Sydney Brennerb. 1927ZASouth African-British biologist, Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine 2002 (1927–2019)
• Sydney Pollackb. 1934USAmerican film director, producer and actor (1934-2008)
• Sydney Tamiia Poitierb. 1973USAmerican actress
• Sydney Sweeneyb. 1997USAmerican actress (born 1997)
• Sydney McLaughlinb. 1999USAmerican hurdler and sprinter

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Sydney come from?

, occasionally ? Variant spelling of Sidney. It was a medieval practice to write y for i, for greater clarity since i was easily confused with other letters. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.

In which country does Sydney have the most bearers?

In the United States, the national register counted about 169 thousand people named Sydney, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sydney.

Where is Sydney most common?

Sydney is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 2.0 thousand people carrying it.

What does the name Sydney mean?

Recorded meaning: , occasionally ? Variant spelling of Sidney.

How common is the name Sydney?

In the United States, the national register counted 169,164 people named Sydney in 2020, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.