Sidney
- Pronunciation
- [Sid-ney]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From St. Denys
- Origin
- French
About the Name Sidney
Sidney is a French-origin surname turned given name, derived from the place name Saint-Denis — the town near Paris named for Saint Denis, the third-century martyr and patron saint of France. The surname de Saint Denis contracted in English use to Sidney or Sydney, and by the nineteenth century it had become an established given name in English-speaking countries for both men and women. Its associations with the refined French saint-place-name tradition give it a quiet aristocratic flavor, while its two-syllable ease ensures it has never felt overly formal in everyday use.
A notable bearer is Sidney Poitier (born 1927), the Bahamian-American actor and director whose six-decade career produced multiple defining American film roles, particularly his 1964 Best Actor Academy Award win for Ralph Nelson's Lilies of the Field — a milestone in American cinema history.
Sidney first appeared in the US Social Security top-1000 (male) in 1880 and peaked in 1912 at rank #80, reflecting a sustained Edwardian-era popularity that placed it among the recognizable men's names of that generation. It maintained a long continuous presence through 2013, its final tracked year at rank #954 with 210 births, accumulating more than 17,000 top-1000 births across its span — a modest total that confirms it was always a recognized rather than a dominant name. The name's longevity on the charts reflects its gentle, adaptable character. Recorded variants include Sid, Syd, and Sydney, the last of which has developed into an independent name with its own robust modern popularity, particularly for girls, effectively taking the Sydney spelling in a new demographic direction.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Sidney
US Popularity History (1880–2014)
Annual US births named Sidney by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1918 with 1,879 boys named Sidney (boy rank #94 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2013, ranked #954 for boys (210 US births). That's 860 places below its 1918 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Sidney Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Sidney the strongest states are South Carolina, Massachusetts, Georgia.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | #765 | 22 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | #770 | 25 |
| 3 | Georgia | #776 | 35 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #796 | 37 |
| 5 | Maryland | #804 | 17 |
| 6 | Tennessee | #833 | 36 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | #834 | 60 |
| 8 | Virginia | #856 | 23 |
| 9 | New York | #857 | 112 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #857 | 112 |
| 2 | Virginia | #856 | 23 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #834 | 60 |
| 4 | Tennessee | #833 | 36 |
| 5 | Maryland | #804 | 17 |
| 6 | Louisiana | #796 | 37 |
| 7 | Georgia | #776 | 35 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #770 | 25 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #765 | 22 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Sidney in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Sidney
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Sidney.
- Sidney Poitier — Movie Actor (1927)
Looking for names like Sidney?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Sidney to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Sidney against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
Sidney Baby Name Ideas
- Vintage Baby Names: Classic Choices with Timeless Charm
- Timeless and Trendy: A Guide to Meaningful Gender-Neutral Baby Names
- Over 600 Sporty Boy Names Inspired By Soccer Players
- Top 150 Hippie Girl Names In U.S.
- 68 Unisex Baby Names: 2025 Usage, Balance, and Practical Tradeoffs
- Top 1000 Most Popular Girl Names In U.S. Of 2015
- 30 Vintage Baby Names Inspired By Old Hollywood
- Hundreds of Unique Destination Baby Names