Stephanie
Feminine · “a crown”
Stephanie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 745,148 girls against 2,638 boys since 1880. See Stephanie as a boy name
Stephanie climbed for ninety years before it peaked. It entered the American record at the end of the nineteenth century, rose slowly through both world wars, kept rising through the fifties and sixties, and only reached the top of the lists in the nineteen-eighties — which is one of the longest approaches on record.
How old is the name Stephanie?
Stephanie first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Stephanie alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 703,000 people named Stephanie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Stephanie most popular?
Stephanie peaked in 1984, reaching #6 nationally. Today it ranks #557, 551 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Where it comes from
From Stephanos to Stephanie
The story of Stephanie
It is the French feminine that English took whole and never anglicized. That is unusual: English generally reshapes a borrowed name to its own spelling within a generation or two — Jeanne became Jane, Marguerite became Margaret, Guillaume became William — and this one arrived from France with its spelling intact and kept it. The accent went, which is all that happened. Everything else about the name, including the ph that English says as an f, is French rendering of Greek, adopted without adjustment and used by millions of people who have never thought about either.
Meaning
a crown
The Greek stephanos is a wreath or garland, the kind given to a victor. The French feminine ending adds nothing to the sense.
How the name formed
- Stephanos
- Stephanie
Related forms: Stephanie · Stefanie · Estefania · Stefania · Stefania
Pronouncing Stephanie
STEF-uh-nee
Three syllables with the weight at the front. French puts it on the last, stay-fah-NEE, and German and Italian differ again.
Nicknames for Stephanie
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 198423,025 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #6reached in 1984
- Change vs 2022
- −17.6%543 in 2025, from 659
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.
Stephanie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Stephanie in French — same name
- Stefanie in German — spelling variant
- Estefania in Spanish — same name
- Stefania in Italian — same name
- Stefania in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Stephanies among us
people named Stephanie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,960 born in 2025 was named Stephanie
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 Nancy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Stephanie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nancy climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nancy's path sketches the road Stephanie is walking now.
Stephanie 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
Where Stephanie is headed
Stephanie should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Stephanie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Stephanie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a form in every European language and is recognized across all of them.
- Steph is one of the most established short forms in English.
- The meaning is settled, short and easy to explain.
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- It is heavily generation-marked to the nineteen-eighties in America.
- Stefanie and Stephany are both in the record and will be written for you.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
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What they receive
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Stephanie
Feminine · #557 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Stephanies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 703,000 people named Stephanie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Stephanie in 2025?
- Stephanie ranks #557 among US girl names in 2025, with 543 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Stephanie?
- About 1 in every 2,960 US girls born in 2025 was named Stephanie — 543 in all.
- Will my child share the name Stephanie with classmates?
- Stephanie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Stephanie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jacqueline#558 · Kamryn#556 · Margo#559 · Alexis#554 · Lilian#560 · Amaia#554 · Mavis#560 · Emerie#553
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Stephanie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Stephanie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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