Steven
The story
Steven is Stephen spelled the way English has always said it. The original is the Greek stephanos, the wreath set on the head of a victor at the games, and it entered Christian memory early: Stephen, stoned in the book of Acts, is honored as the church's first martyr. For centuries the ph ruled the page while the v ruled the tongue; Steven existed as a variant back in the Middle Ages, yet before the twentieth century it was heavily outweighed by Stephen. Then midcentury America took up the spoken spelling in earnest. It surged from the 1930s to a long crest in the 1960s and 70s, the generation of Steven Spielberg, born 1946, and it has eased only gradually since. The wreath was a prize for finishing well; this spelling earned its own.
Steven 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. Steven peaked in the 1950s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
970 people · the #8,470 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 200,000 · median age 23
Among people named Steven living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 70 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Steven
People given the name Steven in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Steven deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Steven 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 Steven fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Does Steven fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Steven to your family’s tree →