Stefaniya
From the Greek *stephanos*, the wreath or crown once pressed onto a winner's head. It's the Russian and Ukrainian feminine of Stefan, so rare in Poland that most people here have never met one.
Stefaniya Pronunciation
Stefaniya is pronounced ste-fah-NYIH-ah (/stɛfaˈɲɨa/).
What Stefaniya means
Where Stefaniya comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Stefaniya comes from the Greek stephanos, meaning a crown or a wreath. The word named a real object, the ring of leaves pressed onto the head of a winner or an honored guest. The masculine Stefan carries the same root, and the variant Stefania stands close beside it.
The first Christian martyr bore the masculine form, and much of the name's spread through Orthodox lands followed his memory. In Russian and Ukrainian families the feminine took hold, and the diminutive Stefa handled the everyday. A girl named Stefaniya received the crown as an image, with no throne behind it.
The wreath was the older thing.
Read a class register in a Ukrainian town and Stefa may sit among the short names, while the full Stefaniya returns on a form at the urząd, signed under a word that once meant korona, a crown.
How many people are named Stefaniya
1 in 115609 women in Poland is named Stefaniya. 195 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2268 among female names.
Stefaniya's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Stefaniya as a middle name
Stefaniya is a first name for 195 women in Poland and a middle name for another 3, a 98/2 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 5278th, between Stefana (3) and Stephani (3).
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#5276 Stefa3
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#5277 Stefana3
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#5278 Stefaniya3
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#5279 Stephani3
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#5280 Sulamita3