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Boy · Ancient Greek
Stephen
Say it: STEE-vun
Meaning
Greek stephanos, 'crown, wreath'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Spread through the cult of the protomartyr; borne by kings of Hungary and England.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1950s
In the United States
- 863,147 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1951, about 1 in 84 boys
- 1,008 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianAncient GreekEnglishAmericanFrenchSpanishItalianPortugueseGermanPolishHungarianRussianSerbian
The family of the name
Other spellings: Steven, Stephan
| French | Étienne |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Esteban |
| Italian | Stefano |
| Portuguese | Estêvão |
| German | Stefan |
| Polish | Stefan |
| Russian | Stepan |
| Hungarian | István |
Famous bearers
- Stephen, first Christian martyr
- Stephen I, first king of Hungary
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Royal and noble genealogies
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- 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.