Steffie
A feminine diminutive of Stephanie, from the Greek name Stephanos meaning "crown".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Steffie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Steffie today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Steffie births was 1918 (48 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Steffie. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Steffie is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Steffies were born before 1968.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Steffie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1918
48 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
1988 SSA rank
#11,600
Tracked since 1904
Census
Steffie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 167 people with the first name Steffie, which placed it at #42,759 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
#42,759
National first-name rank
People counted
167
167 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
52.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Steffie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Steffie is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (19.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%). 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 Steffie 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 Steffie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White52.7% · 88
- Black or African American19.8% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.8% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino7.8% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 3
- Two or more races1.2% · 2
Popularity
Steffie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Steffie from the 1900s through to the 1980s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 243 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Steffie 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 Steffie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Steffies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Steffie, while Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 45 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Steffie
The name Steffie is a diminutive form of the name Stephanie, which ultimately derives from the Greek name Stephanos, meaning "crown" or "wreath." The name gained popularity in the medieval era, particularly in France and other parts of Western Europe.
In the late 12th century, the name Stephanie was recorded in France, where it was often associated with nobility and the upper classes. One of the earliest known bearers of this name was Stephanie de Beauharnais (1789-1860), who became the first Empress of France as the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The diminutive form Steffie emerged as a shortened and more informal version of Stephanie, particularly in English-speaking countries. One notable figure who bore this name was Steffie Doll (1899-1990), a American baseball player who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II.
In the world of literature, Steffie is the name of a character in Don DeLillo's novel "White Noise," published in 1985. The character Steffie Tarnopel is the daughter of the novel's protagonist, Jack Gladney.
Another famous bearer of the name Steffie was Steffie Woolhandler (1947-2022), an American physician and professor who was a prominent advocate for single-payer healthcare reform in the United States.
In the realm of music, Steffie Brass (born 1988) is a Dutch singer-songwriter who has released several albums and gained recognition in the Netherlands and beyond.
While the name Steffie may have originated as a diminutive form, it has evolved into a name in its own right, with its own distinct identity and bearers throughout history.
People
Steffie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Steffie 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
Steffie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Steffie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Steffie 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 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Steffie a common name?
We classify Steffie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 495 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Steffie most popular?
The single biggest year for Steffie was 1918, when 48 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Steffie is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Steffie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 167 people with the name Steffie, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,759 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 Steffie 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 Steffie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Steffie leans strongly female. 166 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 3 male 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 Steffie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Steffie is White at 52.7%. The next largest groups are Black (19.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%). 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 Steffie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Steffie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.7% (88 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 Steffie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Steffie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Steffie in the SSA data are female. 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 Steffie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Steffie 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 Steffie 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 common is the name Steffie?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.