Sebastian
Masculine · “From Sebaste”
Sebastian is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 218,055 boys against 408 girls since 1880.
Sebastian began as a Greek word for "revered," became the name of a city in Asia Minor, then the name of a Roman martyr whose story spread the word across Europe. Shakespeare gave it to Viola's shipwrecked brother in Twelfth Night. Four syllables in some mouths, three in others, it ends softly and shortens cleanly to Seb.
How old is the name Sebastian?
Sebastian first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Sebastian is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 212,000 people named Sebastian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sebastian most popular?
Sebastian peaked in 2022, reaching #13 nationally. Today it ranks #16, 3 places below that high. See the whole 2022 chart.
Sebastian appears on these lists:
- Long and elegant: names with room to breathe
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- Three-syllable names with room to move
- Nine-letter names, the long end of the chart
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino families too:
Where it comes from
From Sebastos to Sebastian
The story of Sebastian
The root is Greek sebastos, "revered," which gave its name to more than one city called Sebaste or Sebasteia in the Roman east. From that came the Latin Sebastianus, "of Sebaste," and the name attached itself firmly to a Christian martyr venerated at Rome in the third century, whose cult carried it into every Catholic language in Europe. Each language kept its own version — Sebastián in Spanish, Sébastien in French, Sebastiano in Italian, Sebastião in Portuguese — while German, Polish and English settled on the same spelling used here. It reached American records in the nineteenth century and stayed quiet for generations before rising steeply, helped along by the Spanish form's long popularity in the Americas.
Meaning
From Sebaste — ultimately "venerable, revered"
Latin Sebastianus meant "man from Sebaste," a city name taken from Greek sebastos, "venerable, revered" — the Greek equivalent of the imperial title Augustus. So the meaning arrives in two steps: a place first, and the honorific behind the place.
Cultural footprint
Sebastian Vettel (b. 1987) — Four-time Formula 1 world champion
Sebastian Stan (b. 1982) — Marvel's Winter Soldier
Sebastian Coe (b. 1956) — Double Olympic champion who now leads world athletics
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Sebastos
- Sebaste
- Sebastianus
- Sebastian
- Sebastián
Related forms: Sebastián · Sébastien · Sebastiano · Sebastião · Sebastian · Sevastianos
Pronouncing Sebastian
suh-BAS-chun
Also said suh-BAS-tee-un, with the third syllable kept separate; both are ordinary in American English. The Spanish Sebastián shifts the stress to the end: seh-bahs-TYAHN.
Nicknames for Sebastian
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 201710,197 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #13reached in 2022
- Change vs 2022
- −8.5%8,605 in 2025, from 9,403
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sebastian in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sebastián in Spanish — same name
- Sébastien in French — same name
- Sebastiano in Italian — same name
- Sebastião in Portuguese — same name
- Sebastian in German — same name
- Sevastianos in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada. Sources
Sebastians among us
people named Sebastian are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 198 born in 2025 was named Sebastian
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kenneth test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sebastian's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenneth climbed just as high around 1939, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenneth's path sketches the road Sebastian is walking now.
Sebastian is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Sebastian is headed
Sebastian should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sebastian beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sebastian in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the same in English, German and Polish, and recognizable at sight in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
- Long-established short forms — Seb, Bastian, Seba — so nothing has to be invented.
- A documented record stretching back to Roman antiquity, with no gap in use since.
- Currently on the charts in England and Wales and in Canada as well as the US.
- Strongly represented in California, Texas and Florida, where the Spanish Sebastián sits comfortably beside it.
- This one is climbing quickly, and its bearers cluster in a narrow, recent age band — a Sebastian today is likely to meet others close to his own age.
- Sebastián, Sébastien and Sebastien all exist, so expect occasional accent marks added or an extra check on the spelling.
- For a generation of children the first Sebastian they meet is the singing crab in Disney's The Little Mermaid; the association tends to fade with age.
- Three or four syllables depending on the speaker, which is worth saying aloud with your surname before deciding.
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What they receive
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Sebastian
Masculine · #16 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sebastians are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 212,000 people named Sebastian are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sebastian in 2025?
- Sebastian ranks #16 among US boy names in 2025, with 8,605 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Sebastian?
- About 1 in every 198 US boys born in 2025 was named Sebastian — 8,605 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sebastian with classmates?
- Roughly 1 in 8 classrooms will have a child named Sebastian.
Ranked beside Sebastian
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hudson#17 · Jack#15 · Luca#14 · Samuel#18 · Elias#13 · Leo#19 · Ezra#20 · Levi#12
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sebastian? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sebastian and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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