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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Has the tradtional boy's name Sidney been ruined by the US trend to use it on girls?

58 replies

artichokes · 06/04/2008 09:35

This is a slightly premature thread as I have only just found out I am pregnant. But if this is a boy then I would love to call him Sidney after two of my great-grandfathers. One was Sidney known as Sid, and the other Sidney known as Sonny.

I love Sidney known as Sonny (although am trying to find out if that is a traditional diminuitive or just my great-gramps). However, DH thinks that people now associite the name Sidney with girls named after US soap characters. Is that true? What do people think of a boy called Sidney, shortened to Sonny?

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tegan · 06/04/2008 18:19

i don't think you should associate names strictly to boys and girls as most names are unisex now. Every name i have chose for the one i have on the way are unisex so we don't have a boy and girl lists just loads of names that can be for both girls and boys.

belgo · 06/04/2008 18:14

simply because I associate it as being a boy's name

tegan · 06/04/2008 18:13

my dd2 is Sidney. Why is it awful???

belgo · 06/04/2008 18:10

I mean awful for girls

belgo · 06/04/2008 18:09

certainly always associated it as a boy's name. Awful for grils.

Califrau · 06/04/2008 18:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

slinkiemalinki · 06/04/2008 17:59

Not keen , it's my uncle's and was grandad's name... very old fashioned and a bit spiv/Eastenders but maybe that's just me (not that I mean to give a bad impression of my family haha). Sonny just sounds Indian to me, as I know a number of Sandeeps who shorten to that. Again maybe it's just a personal thing, but so are names, if you like it, so what. Although I had an ex called Robin and everyone in the US found it hilarious as that too is a girl's name there.

barcelonababe · 06/04/2008 14:40

My friend has a little boy called Sidney - a very lovely, and uncommon name nowadays! Go for it! x

Alishanty · 06/04/2008 14:29

I like it for a boy, was actually thinking about it if we had a boy this time but we are having a girl so have settled for something else! There were a couple of people on another board with girls called Sydney. I'm not that keen on it myself for girls.

Pen74 · 06/04/2008 12:49

I doubt Finley will ever be seen nor be commonly used as a girls name here. The difference being, that Finley/Finlay on a boy or girl is very rare in the US, whereas here it is very popular on a boy.

The thing with Sidney is it is at the moment more frequently used on girls than boys.
In 2007 there were 151 baby girls born called Sydney, whereas there were 25 male Sydneys and and 113 male Sidneys.

Finley/Finley on a girl did got come in the top 2000, which means if there were any born at all there were only one or two. Whereas for boys there were 2,600 Finlay/Finleys born.

I think that Sydney/Sidney is pretty much seen as a unisex name now. I really really can't see the same happening to Stanley.

Original poster
artichokes · 06/04/2008 12:36

I have just been looking at baby name sites and strangely half of them don't even list Sidney .

OP posts:
Original poster
artichokes · 06/04/2008 12:06

Thanks for all your comments. Generally you are all more positive about Sidney than I expected. I had googled Sidney/Sonny and it seems that it is used as a diminuitive, but mainly in the States... However, it must have originated here as my great-grandfather was born in 1898 in Liverpool and got his nickname then.

MadameC - it is interesting what you say about the importance of what is happening to names in the US. I sort of agree that trends cross the pond, but I am not sure how much I want to worry about that. You can't anticipate everything. For example you suggest Stanley will eventually be thought of as a girls name, but in London Stanley is having a real renaissance for little boys. There are so many of them around here that I don't think US trends will change its UK image as a boy's name .

Hoxton Chick - we still haven't had an offer on the house. It is so frustrating. We may take it off the market and just settle here for a while. How is your sale going?

OP posts:
hatrick · 06/04/2008 11:16

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cyteen · 06/04/2008 11:09

Sid is a great name for either sex IMO. I like Sidonie for a girl's version, or Sidra (think I got that one from a novel about the Romans ). As with all things though, use it if you like it and it has meaning for you - who cares what other people associate it with?

GrapefruitMoon · 06/04/2008 10:49

I have met a girl called Sydney here in the UK. Not sure I am keen on Sid - always makes me think of Sid Vicious lol! But Sidney is nice. But tbh if you are going to call him Sonny, why not just use that?? In RL I know lots of people who are not called by the first name on their birth cert (including me) and it is a load of hassle tbh... maybe different if you are just going to use Sonny as a pet name at home (the same way you would say darling, honey, whatever form of endearment you use) but he is called Sidney at school, etc.

Probably was ok for your great-grandfather as there was less call for "official" id, etc in those days so he may have never needed to use Sidney, iyswim....

cece · 06/04/2008 10:41

Yes she is!

lottiejenkins · 06/04/2008 10:30

Robert Lindsays daughter is called Sydney i think??

Eddas · 06/04/2008 10:30

lol at girls being sydney. My dad's middle name is sydney spelt with a y

singersgirl · 06/04/2008 10:27

There is a six-year-old Sid in DS2's class, along with a Frank and an Eric. I think it's great.

cece · 06/04/2008 10:17

Oh and I saw a Cydeny the other day

cece · 06/04/2008 10:17

I thought girls spelt it Sydney?

cece · 06/04/2008 10:13

I wanted to call DS Sid but DH wouldn't let me, so I love it

vicsta · 06/04/2008 10:11

Yes, I agree with MrsMattie. Sidney is the name of a true gentleman who wears a tie every day and carries a real hankie in his pocket. It doesn't bring an image of a girl for me at all. DP has just piped up about Sidney being cockney rhyming slang for something he can't remember. Don't know how he knows that. Can't think of anything to rhyme with it except kidney, so he may be making it up!

RustyBear · 06/04/2008 10:08

I first came across Sydney as a girl's name in Betty MacDonald's books - she was born in 1908 in the US & it was her mother's name, so presumably 1890's at the latest.

MrsMattie · 06/04/2008 10:01

Sidney for a boy has totally different connotations for me to Sindey for a girl. Girl Sidney - Jerry Springer guest. Boy Sidney - old fashioned, quite cute. Sid is a great nickname for either sex, though!