Stefanie
Feminine · “crown”
Stefanie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 37,144 girls against 43 boys since 1880.
Stefanie is the German spelling of Stephanie, and behind both is a Greek word for something worn on the head — the wreath given to a victor, not a monarch's crown.
How old is the name Stefanie?
Stefanie first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Stefanie alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 35,500 people named Stefanie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Stefanie most popular?
Stefanie peaked in 1983, reaching #105 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 8,257 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From stephanos to Stefanie
The story of Stefanie
Stephen was the name of the first Christian martyr, stoned in Jerusalem in the account in Acts, and it became one of the standard names of European Christianity — carried by kings of Hungary, England and Serbia. Feminines were formed everywhere: Stéphanie in French, Stefania in Italian and Polish, Stefanie in German. American use rose sharply through the 1960s and 1970s, and the f spellings rose with it, with Stefanie peaking in the early 1980s.
Meaning
crown, garland
From the Greek stephanos, 'that which surrounds' — the woven wreath awarded at games and to victors. It is not the word for a royal crown, which is diadema. The distinction matters: a stephanos was earned in public rather than inherited.
How the name formed
- stephanos
- Stephanus
- Stéphanie
- Stefanie
Related forms: Stefanie · Stéphanie · Stefania · Stefania
Pronouncing Stefanie
STEF-uh-nee
Three syllables, stress on the first. German speakers often say shte-fa-NEE, with the stress at the end and an sh at the front.
Nicknames for Stefanie
Moderate
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
- 1911
- Most girls named
- 19832,667 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #105reached in 1983
- Change vs 2023
- −33.3%12 in 2025, from 18
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.
Stefanie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Stefanie in German — same name
- Stéphanie in French — spelling variant
- Stefania in Italian — related form
- Stefania in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Illinois.
Stefanies among us
people named Stefanie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Stefanie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Stefanie
- #8362
- Stefanie on the 2025 chart
- #486
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Stefanie went to 12 girls in 2025, but Stephanie is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 555, which makes it the 486th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,876 places above the chart.
- Stephanie543
- Stefanie12
About 1 girl in 2,896 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Stefanie itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Geneva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Stefanie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Geneva climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Geneva's path sketches the road Stefanie is walking now.
Stefanie sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Stefanie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Stefanie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and vivid — an actual object with a documented use.
- It is a standard name in German, and its cousins are standard across Europe.
- The f spelling is the continental one rather than an American invention.
- Stephanie with a ph is far commoner in English and will be assumed.
- German and English stress the name differently, and both are correct.
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What they receive
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Stefanie
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Stefanies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 35,500 people named Stefanie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Stefanie?
- Stefanie is one of 2 recorded spellings. Stephanie is the more common one — 543 births in 2025 against 12 for Stefanie.
- How popular is the name Stefanie in 2025?
- Stefanie ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Stefanie?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Stefanie — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Stefanie with classmates?
- Stefanie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Stefanie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Stefanie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Stefanie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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