Sydney

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Sidney in KR South Korea.

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

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Sydney is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name21K records spelled Sydney11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Peru, Mexico, Colombia

  Languages: Spanish, Italian

  Also written Sidney, Sídney, Sydnëy, Sydnĕy, Šidnëy

• Hindi given name4.2K records spelled Sydney20 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu, Sinhala

  Also written Sidney, Sidni, Sidani, Shidani, Shidney

• Chinese given name2.3K records spelled Sydney2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Taiwan

  Also written Sidney

68 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●

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.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• 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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 904 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Sydney?

We estimate roughly 230 thousand people bear Sydney (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Sydney have the most bearers?

Sydney is most frequently recorded in Australia, where it is most often spelled sydney.

What does the name Sydney mean?

Recorded meaning: , occasionally ? Variant spelling of Sidney.