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Boy · Greek, through Latin
Sebastian
Say it: seh-bahs-TYAHN
Meaning
From Latin Sebastianus 'man of Sebaste', from Greek sebastos 'venerable'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
A top boys' name in Mexico, Colombia and Chile in the 2000s.
Its wave through time
Popular now
In the United States
- 173,734 babies given this name since 1881
- At its height in 2018, about 1 in 179 boys
- 8,933 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianLatinEnglishAmericanFrenchSpanishItalianPortugueseGermanPolishHungarianMexicanCentral AmericanAndeanArgentineCaribbean
The family of the name
| French | Sébastien |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Sebastián |
| Italian | Sebastiano |
| Portuguese | Sebastião |
| German | Sebastian |
| Polish | Sebastian |
| Russian | Sevastyan |
| Hungarian | Sebestyén |
Famous bearers
- Sebastian, Roman martyr shot with arrows
- Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- 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.