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 [ 3 syll. se-bas-tian, seb-asti-an ] The boy name Sebastian is pronounced as SahBAESCHahN KEY. Sebastian is mainly used in English, French, German, and Spanish. Its language of origin is Old Greek. Old forms of the name include Sebastianos (Old Greek) and Sebastianus (Latin). The name is derived from Sebastianos, of the meaning 'man from Sebasta' in reference to the name of a town in Asia Minor. The place name is itself from the Greek 'sebastos' (respected, venerable, augustus), a translation of the Latin ruling title 'augustus'. The name was borne by Saint Sebastian (-287) who was martyred under Diocletian; he was shot with arrows and was thus often depicted as such in medieval art. The name also appeared in two of Shakespeare's plays, as the brother of Viola in Twelfth Night (1601) and as the brother of Alonso in The Tempest (1611). The name was later made known from the charming but tragic character Lord Sebastian Flyte from the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited (1945) and its subsequent television serial (1981). Sebastian has 24 variant forms that are used in both English and other languages. Bastion is a variant form of Sebastian that is used in English. Other English forms include the short forms Bastian (used in German, and Spanish too), Baz, and Seb, the pet forms Bazza and Sebbie, and the spelling variant Sabastian. Variant forms of the name used in other languages include the Dutch Bastiaan, the Portuguese Bastiao, the French and Spanish Bastien, the Dutch Sebastiaan, the Italian and Spanish Sebastiano, the Portuguese Sebastiao, the Spanish Sebastián, the French and German Sebastien, the Polish Sebastjan, the Greek Sebastos, the Hungarian Sebestyen, the Spanish Sebo, the Russian Seva, the Russian Sevastian, and the French Sébastien. The short form Basti (German), and the pet form Bas (Dutch) are other foreign variants. Sebastian is popular as a baby boy name, and it is also perceived as trendy. The name has been rising in popularity since the 1950s. At the modest peak of its usage in 2006, 0.288% of baby boys were named Sebastian. It was #76 in rank then. In 2008, its usage was 0.278% and its ranking #74, and it was the most commonly used out of all boy names in its family. A baby name that sounds like Sebastian is the Spanish name Sebastián. KEY: Pronunciation for Sebastian: S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; B as in "be (B.IY)" ; AE as in "at (AE.T)" ; S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; CH as in "cheese (CH.IY.Z)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)"   |
