MEANING & HISTORY
What does Sebastian mean?
Sebastian comes from Latin Sebastianus, a geographical name meaning from Sebaste. The city’s name was based on Greek sebastos, venerable, an equivalent of the Roman imperial title Augustus.
The direct personal-name meaning is the place connection; venerable belongs to the earlier naming of the city. Saint Sebastian’s prominence helped carry the name through Christian Europe. A modern Sebastian need not have any personal birthplace connection with ancient Sebaste.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
English
- /səˈbæst͡ʃən/
- /sɪˈbæsti.ən/Australia · New-Zealand · UK
- /sɪˈbæs.tʃən/Australia · New-Zealand · variant
Se · bas · ti · an4 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
EnglishEtymology & source
From Latin Sebastiānus, name of an early Christian saint, from ancient city of Sebaste in Asia Minor (modern Sivas, Turkey), from Ancient Greek Σεβαστός (Sebastós, “august, venerable, exalted”), itself a translation of the Roman title Augustus.
A male given name from Latin or Ancient Greek.
Wiktionary: Sebastian (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Sebastian
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Sebastian Benedict
actor
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
7
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
3
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Sebastian Benedict, Sebastian Generoso
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Sebastian in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Sebastian
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Sebastián♂From Sebaste; Spanish form of Sebastianus
- Christian♂Follower of Christ
- Adrian♂♀From Hadria
- Brian♂Irish Brian; possibly connected with height or strength
- Damian♂Related to taming or subduing
- Damián♂Spanish form of Damian; related to taming
- Fabian♂From Roman Fabianus, derived from Fabius
- Fabián♂From the Roman family name Fabius
What rhymes with Sebastian?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Sebastian further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q4844560 — Sebastian (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Sebastian Benedict (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q4844560 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Sebastian Generoso (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q4844560 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Sebastian (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Behind the Name — Sebastian (opens in a new tab)
Consulted account of the name’s formation, relevant root elements, or explicitly linked base name.