Humanverse

Stepfon vs Steve

American parents have registered 242,131 Steves since 1880, against 158 Stepfons. Steve is still ahead, with 105 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Stepfon against Steve, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Stepfon Steve

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

Steve 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 2012, when Stepfon had 5 and Steve had 303.

Side by side

  Stepfon Steve
Total US births 158242,131
Most in one year 1411,095
Babies in 2025 under 5105
Estimated living today 150157,000
Median age today 3464
Peak year 19901959
Best rank 3,971st boys41st boys
Rank in 2025 unranked1,609th
First recorded 19611880
Girls / boys 0 / 158907 / 241,224

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 Steves alive today are over 64; half the Stepfons are over 34. That is 30 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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