Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Sydney was most popular in 2000, when 10,369 American babies were given the name — ranking #61 that year. In 2025 it ranked #717, with 893 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 187,700 people named Sydney.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Sydney is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 146 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 187,700 American births named Sydney between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 178,573 are estimated to be alive today.
893 American babies were named Sydney in 2025, ranking #717 that year.
Sydney is falling. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 1,106 births a year, against 3,278 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of -66% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Sydney is mostly a girl’s name — 95.0% of the 187,700 Americans given it were girls and 5.0% were boys. It changed hands: since 1940 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 98% girls and 2% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 178,573 Americans named Sydney are alive today — 95% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 24 years old, and half are between 18 and 29. That is a narrow band: Sydney arrived and faded within about a decade rather than staying in steady use.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Old English · a place name, "wide meadow"
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Sydney on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org