Sebastian · Daily fortune

Sebastian is a masculine name from the Latin name Sebastianus, meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a city in Asia Minor whose name came from Greek σεβαστός (sebastos) "venerable", itself a translation of the Latin imperial title Augustus. The name spread through medieval Europe because of Saint Sebastian, a 3rd-century Roman soldier martyred under Diocletian, who survived being shot with arrows and was killed only after returning to rebuke the emperor. It was especially popular in Spain and France, and in 2025 it ranked #16 among American boys' names.

Behind the Name gives the chain plainly: Sebastian is "from the Latin name Sebastianus, which meant 'from Sebaste'", Sebaste being a city in Asia Minor whose name derives from Greek σεβαστός (sebastos) "venerable" — itself, Behind the Name notes, a translation of Latin Augustus, the title of the Roman emperors. Wikipedia agrees, routing through Greek Σεβαστιανός (Sebastianos) "from Sebastia", identifies the city as the modern Sivas in central Turkey, and traces sebastos back to sebas "awe, reverence, dread" and the verb sebomai. So the name is not an adjective applied to a person; it is an origin label, and the reverence in it belongs to the city and, behind that, to the emperor.

The name's spread is a saint's story. According to Christian tradition as Behind the Name relates it, Saint Sebastian was a 3rd-century Roman soldier martyred during the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian: discovered to be a Christian, he was tied to a stake and shot with arrows — which did not kill him. Saint Irene of Rome healed him, and he returned to admonish Diocletian in person, whereupon the emperor had him beaten to death. That double martyrdom made him one of the most depicted saints in European art, and his popularity carried the name into general use in medieval Europe, especially in Spain and France. It was also borne by a 16th-century king of Portugal who died in a crusade against Morocco. The modern bearers Wikipedia lists — the Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel, the actor Sebastian Stan, the Austrian politician Sebastian Kurz, the Chilean president Sebastián Piñera, the British athlete and politician Sebastian Coe — show how thoroughly the name has stayed in continental and English-speaking use.

Sebastian ranked #16 for boys in the United States in 2025 (Social Security Administration). Its usage list at Behind the Name is unusually wide for a top-20 American name — German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Romanian and Czech, with Spanish Sebastián and French Sébastien alongside — so the name is genuinely pan-European rather than an English-language phenomenon. No historical American series was fetched for this profile.

Behind the Name lists no IPA for English Sebastian, so the English respelling here (sə-BAS-chən) is given without a verified transcription. It does give IPA for six other languages, and they differ mainly in the stress: German /ze.ˈbas.ti.an/ and Polish /sɛ.ˈbas.tjan/ stress the second syllable, Finnish /ˈse.bɑs.ti.ɑn/ and Czech /ˈsɛ.bas.tɪ.jan/ the first, and Romanian /se.bas.ti.ˈan/ the last.

Sebastian is long, formal and unmistakably European, and it has kept an aristocratic reputation in English partly through fiction and partly through its sheer syllable count — four beats is a lot for a modern boy's name. It has the rare property of sounding equally at home in Spanish, German and English without changing spelling much, which is why it works for families who need a name to cross a border. Its short forms split by country: Bastian and Bas in the Germanic languages, Bastien in French, Seb in English use. Parents who want the formality without the length usually end up shortlisting it against Theodore and Alexander.

The bearers below are named in the Behind the Name entry or the Wikipedia article consulted for this profile.

Names that share Sebastian's length and formality, its saint's-name history, or its Latin sound.