Boy · Greek, through Latin
István
Say it: EESHT-vahn
Meaning
From Greek stephanos 'crown, wreath'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
The baptismal name of Hungary's first king and one of the most common Hungarian names for a thousand years.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 81 babies given this name since 1962
- At its height in 2000, about 1 in 245,400 boys
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Pista
| English | Stephen |
|---|---|
| German | Stefan |
| Romanian | Ștefan |
Famous bearers
- Saint Stephen (István I), first king of Hungary
- István Széchenyi, 19th-century reformer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Royal and noble genealogies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.