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Sten

Boys' name

Stone, through Steen

Sten has been given to 170 babies in the U.S. since 1945. 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 1965, with 10 recorded.

Babies named Sten, 2003

1 in 475,000

Sten over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02.557.51018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sten: meaning, origin, and history

Stone, through Steen

Old Norse and Swedish

What Sten means

Sten belongs to the name family reached through Sten → Steen. Its meaning is “stone”.

Origin, language, and formation

Sten is used in Danish, Estonian, Norwegian and Swedish. Its origins include Old Norse and Swedish.

Sten comes through Old Norse Steinn.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Steen, Stefan and Stein.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 170 boys were recorded with the name Sten between 1945 and 2003. Its highest annual count was 10 in 1965; its best national rank was #2,760 in 1965.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Sten?

Sten had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2003, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2003
1 in 475,000
8 of 3,801,425 births
Among boys only
1 in 247,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2003
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
329,370 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sten 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 2003 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 329,370 children born in 2003 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sten. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Stens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sten was born before 1970 — so the typical Sten is around 55 today.

Median birth year
1970
About 55 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
38.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
30.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
165
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 38.8% of all recorded uses (66).

Is Sten 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 1965 (10)
Years since peak
60
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,760
1965

Spellings of Sten

Sten is not the most common spelling — Steven is, with 47.0% against Sten's <0.01%.

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.

Where Sten is used

Across 1910–2025, Sten was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Sten has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Sten around the world

Where Sten 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.

  • France
    1968–2020
    #5,533
    in 2020
  • Norway
    1880–2012
    #492
    in 2012
  • South Australia
    1952–1970
    #540
    in 1970

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Sten 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
#2,760
1965
Peak year
1965
10 that year
First recorded
1945
Last recorded
2003
All-time count
170
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Sten

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

StepanSteenAxtenEstenSteelSteinSteliosCastenMaxtenStetsynHastenSteedKastenStetsenStefenGotenDaytenTatenPaxtenOstenStellaStepfonLaytenHolten

Sibling names for Sten

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 Sten

Top names of 1965, Sten's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1965Boys' names starting with SViking Boy Names