The Bouc–Wen nonlinear hysteretic model is widely used in nonlinear systems, and it is difficult to identify the parameters of Bouc–Wen model because of its high nonlinearity. In the paper, a hybrid genetic algorithm combined with sequential quadratic programming is proposed to solve the problem about the parameter identification of Bouc–Wen model. Sequential quadratic programming method has good local convergence and superlinear convergence rate. Therefore, compared with the genetic algorithm, the proposed identification method can accelerate the convergence speed in parameter recognition of Bouc–Wen model and achieve excellent recognition accuracy. Through the function test and the numerical simulation of the shear structure, it is proved that the proposed method has high convergence speed and accurate identification. In addition, the theory and method proposed in this paper are combined with Bouc–Wen model to identify parameters of overall restoring force model of the energy-dissipation structures, the identification results are in good agreement with the experimental results, verifying reliability and accuracy of the model and robustness of the proposed identification method.