Steven

← Back to The High and Late Middle Ages

Boy · Greek

Steven

Say it: STEE-vun

Try it with your surname

Meaning

A spelling of Stephen, from Greek stephanos 'crown, garland'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

This spelling, long a medieval variant, overtook Stephen in the US in the mid-20th century and peaked in the 1950s and 1960s.

Its wave through time

A fashion of the 1950s

In the United States

0510152018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1955per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 1,290,712 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1955, about 1 in 54 boys
  • 1,661 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
  2. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

EnglishAmericanGreek

The family of the name

Other spellings: Stephen, Stephan

FrenchÉtienne
ItalianStefano
SpanishEsteban
GermanStefan
RussianStepan

Famous bearers

  • Saint Stephen, first Christian martyr
  • Steven Spielberg, US director

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
  • Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today 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.