Steve
Steve is a boy's name that peaked in 1959, when it was the 41st most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 1,609th. About 157,000 Steves are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 64.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Steve boys named Steve
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 242,131
- Estimated living today
- 157,000
- Median age today
- 64
- Peak year
- 1959
- Best rank
- 41st
- Rank in 2025
- 1,609th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 907 / 241,224
How old the living Steves are
born that year still alive today
Of the 242,131 babies given the name since 1880, about 157,000 are alive — 65 in every hundred. Roughly 3,900 of them are children and 72,000 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1961 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Shortening of various names ultimately derived from Latin Stephanus, from Ancient Greek Στέφανος from στέφανος (“crown, wreath”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Steves
- Steve Wozniak (born 1950)American computer pioneer, inventor, computer engineer and programmer; co-founder of Apple Inc.
- Steve Irwin (1962–2006)Australian zookeeper, conservationist and TV personality
- Steve Biko (1946–1977)South African anti-apartheid activist
- Steve McQueen (1930–1980)American actor
- Steve Ballmer (born 1956)American businessman, former chief executive officer of Microsoft
- Steve Buscemi (born 1957)American actor
- Steve Carell (born 1962)American actor and comedian
- Steve Zahn (born 1967)American actor
People named Steve with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Steve is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Steve is most concentrated in New Mexico (1.7×), Wyoming (1.5×), Montana (1.4×), California (1.4×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1959
The most popular boys’ names the year Steve peaked:
Steve elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| France boys | Steve +2 spellings | 22,245 | 75th |
| Belgium boys | Steve | 540 | 133rd |
| England and Wales boys | Steve | 456 | 588th |
| Norway boys | Steve | 356 | 262nd |
| Ireland boys | Steve | 193 | 401st |
| Scotland boys | Steve | 142 | 155th |
| France girls | Steve | 5 | 2,639th |
| Northern Ireland boys | Steve | 3 | 281st |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Steve: rank by region
In 2007, Steve was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wallonia | Steve | 464 | 5 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Steve among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Steve | 68 | 101 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Steve lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 186 men called Steve were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alicante/Alacant | Steve | 27 | 0.027 | 2,142 |
| Balears, Illes | Steve | 14 | 0.022 | 2,376 |
| Palmas, Las | Steve | 9 | 0.015 | 4,144 |
| Málaga | Steve | 11 | 0.013 | 3,271 |
| Madrid | Steve | 35 | 0.010 | 4,049 |
Listed in 5 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 47 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Steve against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.