Stephanos
A masculine given name derived from Greek meaning "crown" or "wreath".
Name Census estimates that about 111 living Americans carry the first name Stephanos. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Stephanos today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stephanos births was 2000 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stephanos. 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 Stephanos with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
111
~ 1 in 3,087,877 Americans
Peak year
2000
10 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2020 SSA rank
#13,783
Tracked since 1985
Census
Stephanos in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 237 people with the first name Stephanos, which placed it at #34,427 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
#34,427
National first-name rank
People counted
237
237 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Stephanos
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stephanos is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Stephanos 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 Stephanos at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.6% · 184
- Black or African American12.2% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 14
- Two or more races2.1% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Stephanos: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stephanos from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 44 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
Stephanos 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 Stephanos during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Stephanos
The name Stephanos has its origins in the Greek language. It derives from the Greek word "stephanos" which means "crown" or "wreath". This reflects the ancient Greek tradition of crowning victors in athletic competitions or celebrations with a wreath or crown made of leaves or flowers. The name Stephanos likely emerged during the classical Greek period over 2,500 years ago.
Stephanos was a relatively common personal name among Greek men in ancient times. It appears in various ancient Greek texts and writings from authors like Plutarch and Pausanias. The name also has connections to early Christianity, as Saint Stephanos was one of the first Christian martyrs stoned to death according to the New Testament book of Acts.
One of the earliest recorded individuals named Stephanos was Stephanos of Byzantium, a grammarian and scholar who lived in the 6th century AD. Another notable bearer of the name was Stephanos of Alexandria, a 7th century philosopher, scholar and head of the Philosophical School of Alexandria.
During the Byzantine Empire period, the name continued to be used by Greek scholars, philosophers and religious figures. One example is Stephanos Sachlikis, a 9th century Byzantine poet and hymn writer. In the 11th century, Stephanos Skylitzes was a prominent Byzantine historian who wrote the chronicle "Synopsis of Histories".
As the name spread across Europe over the centuries, different spellings emerged like Stephen and Steven. One famous bearer of this variant was Saint Stephen, the first King of Hungary who ruled from 997 to 1038 AD and led the establishment of Christianity in Hungary.
Another influential individual named Stephanos was Istephanos or Stephanos Gongyla, a 12th century Armenian philosopher who made significant contributions to the advancement of logic and philosophy. In the 13th century, Stephanos Valismiletch was a noted Armenian poet, writer and clergyman.
People
Stephanos + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stephanos 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
Stephanos: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stephanos?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 111 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stephanos 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 3,087,877 US residents.
Is Stephanos a common name?
We classify Stephanos as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 113 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stephanos most popular?
The single biggest year for Stephanos was 2000, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stephanos is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Stephanos in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 237 people with the name Stephanos, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,427 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 Stephanos 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 Stephanos?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stephanos appears almost entirely male. Of the 237 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Stephanos?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stephanos is White at 77.6%. The next largest groups are Black (12.2%) and Hispanic (5.9%). 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 Stephanos most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Stephanos in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.6% (184 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 Stephanos in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Stephanos a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Stephanos 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 Stephanos still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Stephanos 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 Stephanos 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 Americans are named Stephanos?
See how many people share the name Stephanos on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.