Steven: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Steven has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 1,296,316 births with this name, split between 4,465 girls and 1,291,851 boys. Because the larger side of that split is boys, this page follows the boys ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Steven was 1956, when 38,410 boys received the name and it reached rank 10 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1956, Steven accounted for 1.82% of all recorded boys births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Steven by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Steven becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Steven can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

In the 1880s, Steven recorded 177 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 386, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1890s, Steven recorded 186 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 391, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1900s, Steven recorded 338 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 314, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1910s, Steven recorded 2,530 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 258, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1920s, Steven recorded 3,639 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 269, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1930s, Steven recorded 4,834 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 144, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. During the 1940s, Steven stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 20 and 81,205 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 1950s, Steven was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 10 and recording 333,657 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file.

In the 1960s, Steven was a top-ten name for boys, reaching as high as rank 10 and recording 290,599 births across the decade, one of its strongest ten-year stretches in the entire file. During the 1970s, Steven stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 15 and 188,096 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1980s, Steven stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 22 and 177,470 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1990s, Steven stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 25 and 121,104 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 2000s, Steven stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 54 and 53,908 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 2010s, Steven recorded 26,889 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 112, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2020s, Steven recorded 7,219 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 222, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among boys, and the share of all boys births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 3,436 to 1,284, a change of -62.6 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Steven stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Steven recorded 7,362 births for boys, and in 2010 it recorded 3,436. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Steven also appears on the girls side of the file, with 4,465 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 1,291,851 births recorded for boys, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the boys table only. Counting both sides together, Steven totals 1,296,316 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 27 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among boys and a rank earned among girls describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Steven with the full rankings for its peak year (1956) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Steven were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 1,284 boys named Steven, ranked 269 among boys that year.

When was Steven most popular?
Steven peaked in 1956 with 38,410 births for boys, reaching rank 10 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Steven appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 1,296,316 births named Steven from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/