Sidney - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. si-dney, sid-n-ey ] The boy name Sidney is also used, and more frequently so, as a girl name. Its pronunciation is SIHDNiy ^KEY. Sidney is used chiefly in the English language and it is derived from Old English origins. Sidney's meaning is wide island, wide meadow. From the elements 'sidan' meaning wide ; 'eg' meaning river island, riverside meadow. The first name is derived from the surname, which could be from a place name in Surrey, England, from the Old English 'sidan' and 'eg'. The surname could also be derived from the Norman baronial title named after the place name of Saint-Denis in France. The family name was borne by influential persons including the English poet, courtier and soldier Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586); in his case, the surname is from Surrey. Another noted bearer of the family name was political martyr Algernon Sidney (1622-1683), an opponent of the monarchy of King Charles II. The first name was adopted from the mid 19th century, and its adoption was later promoted by the appearance of the heroic character Sydney Carton in the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

Forms of Sidney include the short forms Sid (English) and Syd (English), and the variant spelling Sydney (English).

Sidney is a classic favorite. At present it is still somewhat popular as a baby name for boys, though it was in more widespread use previously. At the modest height of its usage in 1912, 0.222% of baby boys were given the name Sidney. It ranked at #80 then. The baby name has since experienced a marked loss in popularity, and is of occasional use in recent years. In 2007, its usage was only 0.011% and its ranking #840, but it was nonetheless the most frequently used within all boy names in its group. Though Sidney is more popular as a girl name today, there was a period before 1992 that it was given more often to boys. From 1993 on, increasingly more girls than boys were named Sidney. In 2006, the name Sidney was given to 3 times as many girls than boys.

Baby names that sound like Sidney include Sydney (English), Steenie (Scottish), Stijn (Dutch), Stan (English), Steen (Scandinavian), Stein (Dutch and Scandinavian), Sten (Scandinavian), Steyn (Dutch), Stone (English), and Cystennin (Welsh).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Sidney: S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; IH as in "it (IH.T)" ; D as in "dee (D.IY)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"

Details of famous persons named Sidney:
Actor Sidney Poitier, born 20 February 1927, Miami, Florida.
Author S.J. (Sid) Perelman, born Sidney Joseph Perelman, 1 February 1904 - 17 October 1979, Brooklyn, New York.

Popularity Trend
for Sidney
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Sidney
in 2007