Find out how popular the last name Steff is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Steff.

Steff, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Steff surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Steff in America

Steff is the 71042nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Steff surname appeared 275 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Steff.

We can also compare 2010 data for Steff to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Steff

The surname Steff has its origins in Germany, tracing back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to have derived from the Germanic personal name "Stefe" or "Stefo," which itself originated from an Old High German word "staf" or "stef," meaning a staff or a stick.

One of the earliest records of the name Steff can be found in the Codex Traditionum of the Benedictine abbey of Reichenau, dated around the 9th century. This manuscript mentions a landowner named "Steffo" who donated some of his estates to the monastery.

During the medieval period, the name Steff was predominantly found in the regions of Bavaria and Swabia, which were part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was often associated with families of peasant farmers or woodsmen, whose work involved the use of staffs or sticks.

In the 13th century, a notable bearer of the name was Steffan von Bamberg, a Catholic bishop and missionary who played a significant role in the Christianization of Pomerania. He was born around 1165 and died in 1207.

Another historical figure with the surname Steff was Hans Steff, a German Renaissance painter born in Nuremberg around 1480. He was a contemporary of the famous artist Albrecht Dürer and is known for his religious paintings and altarpieces.

In the 16th century, the name Steff appeared in various spellings, such as Stef, Steph, and Steff, reflecting regional variations and the lack of standardized spelling during that time. One example is Johann Steff, a German theologian and reformer born in Augsburg in 1532, who played a role in the Protestant Reformation.

The name Steff has also been associated with certain place names in Germany, such as Steffenburg, a small town in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and Steffeln, a village in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. These place names likely derived from individuals bearing the surname Steff who settled in those areas.

Other notable individuals with the surname Steff include Georg Steff (1615-1679), a German composer and organist from Nuremberg, and Johann Steff (1804-1856), a German politician and writer from Bavaria.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Steff

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Steff.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Steff was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Steff has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Steff was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Steff, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!