Humanverse

Stephanie vs Steward

American parents have registered 747,786 Stephanies since 1880, against 1,229 Stewards. Stephanie is still ahead, with 543 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Stephanie against Steward, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Stephanie Steward

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

Of the 138 years in which either name was published, Stephanie for 135 years and Steward for 3 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Stephanie Steward
Total US births 747,7861,229
Most in one year 24,96637
Babies in 2025 543under 5
Estimated living today 700,000550
Median age today 4159
Peak year 19901920
Best rank 7th girls1,180th boys
Rank in 2025 557thunranked
First recorded 18911882
Girls / boys 745,148 / 2,6380 / 1,229

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 Stewards alive today are over 59; half the Stephanies are over 41. That is 18 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: Stephanie and Steward.