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Steffon vs Stella

American parents have registered 207,288 Stellas since 1880, against 877 Steffons. Stella is still ahead, with 4,136 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Steffon against Stella, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Steffon Stella

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Stella has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1994, when Steffon had 43 and Stella had 131.

Side by side

  Steffon Stella
Total US births 877207,288
Most in one year 435,164
Babies in 2025 under 54,136
Estimated living today 830110,000
Median age today 3111
Peak year 19942018
Best rank 1,927th boys38th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked52nd
First recorded 19601880
Girls / boys 0 / 877206,906 / 382

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Steffons alive today are over 31; half the Stellas are over 11. That is 20 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Steffon and Stella.