The Sidney Internet Directory aims to be the home of all things Sidney and Sydney. Information on these pages comes from a wide variety of sources so I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information. If you are researching the Sidney or Sydney name then this site should be able to give you a good start and perhaps some information that you can't find anywhere else.

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Origins of the Sidney & Sydney name

I have so far found three possible origins of the Sidney family name in Britain.

• The Sidney's of Penshurst - which includes Sir Philip Sidney - can trace their family back to William Sidney in 1393 and John de Sydenie in 1280, when the family owned land in Alfold, Surrey. There remains a Sydney farm and Sydney wood to this day. There is also a reference to Sidney's from Anjou, Normandy settling in Lewes Priory, Kent in 1188. I don't know the spelling of the name at this time although it is likely to be de Sydenie. This version of the Sidney name is French in origin - arriving in England after the Norman invasion - but unlikely (according to most reference sources) to be derived from Saint-Denis in Normandy although it's easy to see why it might be. You can see the changes made to the name as it became less popular to have French connections and the family may have deliberately adopted an Anglicized version of their family name.

• Another origin is Old English and may have several meanings: Sid + Eg meaning (of the) Wide Island or (of the) Wide well-watered Land and Sid + Hala meaning Broad or Wide + Nook. The latter is likely to be the source of the place name in Cheshire. It may also mean South of the water (R.Ouse) in reference to the place name in Sussex.

• The early Christians within the Roman empire introduced the Latin/Greek name Sidonius which meant Coming from Sidon (in Phoenicia). This name probably found it's way to Britain during the Roman occupation and later became Sidney.
  

Other Sidney Information

• The Sidney family motto is QUO FATA VOCANT which translates as Whither the Fates call

• The broad arrow design - best known on prisoners uniforms - which is used to identify property of the government is based on the Sidney family coat of arms. Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney, was Master of Ordnance to William and Mary and was asked to mark all government property to reduce theft. He chose to use his family emblem which is a broad arrow, or Pheon, and this is still in use today by the UK government 300 years later.

• The use of Sidney as a first-name derives from the republican 'martyr' Algernon Sidney in the 17th century.

• The name Sydney is generally considered to be an alternate spelling of Sidney although the French origins were Sydenie or Sedeneye.

• The city of Sydney in Australia was named by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788 after the Home Secretary (or Secretary of State depending on your source), Lord Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney and was originally called Sydney Cove. The area is now known as Circular Quay.

• The town of Sydney on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia was named five years previous in the same way. Townshend was Colonial Secretary at the time.

• The girls name Sidony derives from the Greek Sindon meaning (in honour of Christ's) linen shroud.

• Elizabethan poet, soldier and statesman Sir Philip Sidney was the first commoner to have a state funeral at St. Paul's cathedral, in London. The next to be honored in this way was Admiral Lord Nelson and then later, Sir Winston Churchill - who is descended from the Sidney family - and Lady Diana Spencer.