Sidney (often shortened to Sid) is an English given name deriving from the surname, itself of two different derivations depending on the origins of the family.
In some cases a place name, itself from Old English, meaning "wide water meadow", and in others from the French place name "St.
[1] Sidney became widely used as a given name in English-speaking countries during the 19th century.
It was popularised in the United States after the American Revolution due to admiration for the English politician Algernon Sidney as a martyr to royal tyranny;[2] since its peak in the 1910s its usage has declined steadily.
From the early 1990s to the 2000s, the name Sidney has become a fashionable name given to girls.