Name Awesome

Istvan

Boys' name

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Istvan has been given to 81 babies in the U.S. since 1962. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2000, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Istvan, 2009

1 in 546,000

Istvan over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Istvan: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Istvan means

Istvan is a given name.

The naming story behind Istvan

Charlotte M. Yonge’s 1884 History of Christian Names includes the exact spelling Istvan in its glossary. The entry labels it masculine and points to printed page(s) 96.

The glossary’s abbreviated description reads: “Hung. Gr. crown”. This is the historical author’s wording, including its language abbreviations and any proposed interpretation. It is presented as historical evidence, not as a verified modern translation. Victorian classifications and root explanations can differ from later linguistic research.

For Istvan, the current short meaning therefore remains unconfirmed. Establishing its modern etymology requires a current reference that documents the exact form and its relationship to the proposed earlier words.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 81 boys were recorded with the name Istvan between 1962 and 2009. Its highest annual count was 8 in 2000; its best national rank was #3,458 in 1963.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Istvan?

Istvan had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2009, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2009
1 in 546,000
7 of 3,820,315 births
Among boys only
1 in 283,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2009
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
378,293 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Istvan sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2009 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 378,293 children born in 2009 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Istvan. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Istvans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Istvan was born before 1993 — so the typical Istvan is around 32 today.

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
35.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
64.2%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
81
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 35.8% of all recorded uses (29).

Is Istvan rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2000 (8)
Years since peak
25
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,458
1963

Spellings of Istvan

Istvan is not the most common spelling — Ivan is, with 83.4% against Istvan's 0.05%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Istvan around the world

Where Istvan ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2007–2024
    #5,120
    in 2024
  • France
    1958–2011
    #4,445
    in 2011
  • Canada
    2001–2001
    #2,057
    in 2001
  • South Australia
    1954–1993
    #519
    in 1993

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Istvan by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,458
1963
Peak year
2000
8 that year
First recorded
1962
Last recorded
2009
All-time count
81
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Istvan

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KeyvanSilvanShivanDuvanEivanAavanNovanDhruvanSuvanNeevanGiovanAadhavanKeivanBhuvanJivanNivanJaivanJayvanRivanNirvanKayvanSaavanJeevanDrevan

Sibling names for Istvan

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Istvan

Top names of 2000, Istvan's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1963Boys' names starting with IHungarian Boy NamesStephen Variations & Nicknames