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Sidney

Boy / Girl name · 44 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Sidney: 44 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to both boys and girls, peaking at 10 births in 2025.

Sidney has long been the primary English spelling of a name that began as the Norman French surname _de Saint-Denis_, referring to the town and abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris. It thus means 'from Saint-Denis', the patron saint of Paris whose Greek name Dionysius means 'follower of Dionysus'. The spelling shift from _Sidney_ came through folk etymology connecting it to the Old English _sīd_ ('wide') and _īeg_ ('island'). Famous bearers include the Elizabethan poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney, whose _Arcadia_ and _Astrophel and Stella_ shaped English literature, and the 18th-century feminist writer and translator Mary Sidney. The Australian city Sydney shares the same origin, named after Lord Sydney, British Home Secretary, whose own surname traces to the same Norman place-name. Though originally masculine, Sidney has been used for girls since the 1970s, mirroring the trend for surname-names like Ashley and Courtney.