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The first name 
Sebastian

Sebastian is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.

The name Sebastian is very popular!

The first name Sebastian is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #27 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Sebastian, accounting for approximately 0.50 % of all newborn boys. In the entire USA, approximately 188,088 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Sebastian. That is 0.06 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Sebastian

What does the name 
Sebastian mean?

The name Sebastian means ‘the venerable one’. This meaning comes from the Greek word ‘sebastós’, which can be translated as ‘venerable’. But another meaning can be ‘man from Sebaste’ in reference to the Greek name ‘Sebastianós’.

Quite a few famous people are called Sebastian

German musician and composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
This famous German composer of the late Baroque period is known both for his sacred and secular compositions. Johann Sebastian Bachs most well-known pieces are the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier for keyboard, organ works such as the Schubler Chorales, and vocal music such a the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor.

A fictional Disney character

Sebastian
Sebastian, full name Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian, is a fictional character from the well-known Disney movie The Little Mermaid. He was solely created for this movie and was not derived from the original story by Hans Christian Andersen. Sebastian is a red Jamaican crab, servant to the King Triton, and his main musical composer. His main song is called Under the Sea.

A Romanian-American actor

Sebastian Stan (*1982)
Most people know him as the face of Captain Americas alter ego Steve Rogers childhood best friend, James Buchanan Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier a role that catapulted Romanian-American Sebastian Stan to international fame ever since his first appearance in 2011. Stan is also known for his roles as Dr. Chris Beck in The Martian (2015) or as Tommy Lee in the biographical mini-series Pam & Tommy (2022) for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Retired racing driver

Sebastian Vettel (*1987)
Sebastian Vettel is a German racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 2007 to 2022, when he retired as a driver. In 2010, he became the youngest driver to become a World Champion in Formula One at that time. Vettel started his career as a test driver for BMW Sauber in 2006 and later also joined Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. He won four consecutive championships from 2010 to 2013 and is recognized as one of the most successful drivers in Formula One history.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Sebastian, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Sebastian? Are you also called Sebastian? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

A city in Florida

Formerly called St. Sebastian, after the Christian saint, but later shortened to only Sebastian this city in Florida is located only two miles away from the Atlantic Ocean.

Several places...

in the U.S. are called Sebastian. There is an unincorporated community by this name in Ohio and a census-designated place in Texas.

A town in Australia

The small town of Sebastian is located in northern Victoria, Australia. The town was established in 1863 after a German settler by the name of Sebastian Schmidt discovered gold there.

San Sebastian Church

San Sebastian Church is a Roman Catholic Church in Manila, and the only steel building church in the entire in Philippines. It was completed in 1891, boasting a Neo-Gothic Style.

Sebastian -
from zero to hero

#13 - this is the highest rank Sebastian has ever achieved. Not many names manage to reach such a high popularity in even one of the 140+ years of recording. The last time Sebastian reached this top spot was in 2022 when 9,346 newborn boys were given this name. But as our statistics show, Sebastian hasn't always been a popular name: in some years of record, most recently in the year 1900, not a single newborn or less than 5 were named Sebastian (a name is only included in the official statistics if it has been given at least 5 times in a year). Nevertheless, the name Sebastian has accompanied people in this country for a long time. It turns out that this name fits very well into our time today. From zero to hero - even though it took a while for Sebastian to really catch on, it has become a very popular name.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Sebastian was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Sebastian -
well known in all states of the USA, most popular in Nevada

There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Sebastian is one of them. However, Sebastian is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Nevada seem to particularly fancy this name – the 2,390 men called Sebastian who live here are 0,422% of all male residents and push their name up to #57 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Nevada. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 188,088 people with the name Sebastian. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Sebastian on position 177 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Sebastian has 9 letters 
and begins with an S

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter S is a quite popular first letter for boys’ names. Because: 5.9% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters for boys’ names are J, A and D.

With nine letters, the name Sebastian is relatively long compared to other names. In fact, 5.6% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly nine letters. 92% of all first names are shorter, while not even 2.5% of all boys’ and girls’ names use ten or more letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long with no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

This means that with 5.9% of all boys' names that begin with an S, this first letter is much more common than all 26 letters on average - and the most popular one of all the boys’ names starting with S is Steven.

Other names with 
S, e, b, a, s, t, i, a and n

If you take all the letters in the name Sebastian – S, e, b, a, s, t, i, a and n – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Sebastain or Sabastien.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Sebastian

If your name is Sebastian and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Sebastian

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Sebastian, you can simply say:

Sun

Elephant

Butterfly

Apple

Sun

Tiger

Igloo

Apple

Nut

This is how the name Sebastian is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Sebastian in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Sebastian

Sebastian

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Sebastian

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Sebastian is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

S
E
B
A
S
T
I
A
N

Have you ever waved the name Sebastian

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

S
E
B
A
S
T
I
A
N

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Sebastian sounds like this: