Stephanie
Meaning
crowned
Goes by Steph, Stevie
Famously borne by Stephanie Gilmore, winner of a record eight world titles in women's surfing. Famously borne by Stephanie Kwolek, chemist who invented Kevlar.
The story
Stephanie is the feminine form of Stephen, whose Greek root stephanos means a wreath or crown, especially the victor's wreath awarded in the ancient world. The name has close relatives across Europe, including Stéphanie, Stefanie, Stefania, Estefanía, and Estéfani. English-speaking America made this international classic into a strong generational marker. The US curve is low in the early record, begins climbing at midcentury, rises quickly through the 1970s, and reaches its highest band across the 1980s and 1990s. It then steps down through the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. That arc gives Stephanie a late twentieth-century signature without making the name historically young. It is an old Greek-rooted family whose American moment was unusually concentrated, formal in full and softened easily to Steph or Stevie.
Stephanie around the world
One shared root links 11 names across 5 languages.
Shared root: from Greek stephanos "crown, garland"
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Stephanie peaked in the 1980s and the 1990s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
15,911 people · the #1,239 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 12,821 · median age 24
Among people named Stephanie living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 206 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Stephanie
Most people given the name Stephanie in the United States were born between 1970 and 1999. The Stephanie you meet today is most often in her 30s or 40s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Stephanie deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Stephanie truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Stephanie fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Stephanie · Korean American baby names · Names of geniuses and inventors · Action sports names
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