Stefen
Crown or garland, a Greek name representing a laurel wreath or crown.
Name Census estimates that about 852 living Americans carry the first name Stefen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Stefen today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stefen births was 1989 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stefen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Stefen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
852
~ 1 in 402,294 Americans
Peak year
1989
41 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,648
Tracked since 1961
Census
Stefen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 831 people with the first name Stefen, which placed it at #14,225 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#14,225
National first-name rank
People counted
831
831 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Stefen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stefen is White at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Black (16.0%) and Hispanic (14.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Stefen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Stefen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.8% · 489
- Black or African American16.0% · 133
- Hispanic or Latino14.7% · 122
- Two or more races6.3% · 52
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 6
Popularity
Stefen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stefen from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 254 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Stefen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Stefen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Stefens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Stefen, while Texas, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Stefen
The name Stefen originates from the Greek name Stephanos, meaning "crown" or "wreath." It gained popularity during the Byzantine era and spread throughout the Christian world.
Stephanos was a common name among early Christian saints and martyrs, such as Saint Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, who was stoned to death circa 34 AD, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
The name Stefen, with its variant spellings like Stefan and Stephan, can be traced back to the 4th century AD. One of the earliest recorded bearers was Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty and the first recognized ruler of Serbia, who lived from around 1113 to 1199.
During the Middle Ages, the name was widely used in Eastern Europe, particularly in countries with significant Orthodox Christian populations, such as Russia, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Notable historical figures include Stefan Dušan, the Serbian Emperor who ruled from 1331 to 1355, and Stefan Batory, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1576 to 1586.
In Western Europe, the name gained prominence during the Renaissance period. One of the most famous bearers was Stefan Zweig, the Austrian novelist, playwright, and biographer, who lived from 1881 to 1942.
Other notable individuals with the name Stefen include Stefan Banach, the Polish mathematician and founder of modern functional analysis, who lived from 1892 to 1945, and Stefan Zweig, the Austrian writer and playwright, who lived from 1881 to 1942.
The name Stefen has been spelled in various ways throughout history, including Stefan, Stephan, Stephen, and Estienne, reflecting the linguistic and cultural influences of different regions.
People
Stefen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stefen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Stefen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stefen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 852 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stefen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 402,294 US residents.
Is Stefen a common name?
We classify Stefen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 878 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stefen most popular?
The single biggest year for Stefen was 1989, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stefen is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Stefen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 831 people with the name Stefen, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,225 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Stefen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Stefen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stefen leans strongly male. 815 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 15 female bearers (1.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Stefen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stefen is White at 58.8%. The next largest groups are Black (16.0%) and Hispanic (14.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Stefen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Stefen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.8% (489 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Stefen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Stefen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Stefen in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Stefen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Stefen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Stefen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Stefen?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Stefen, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.