Entry № 10015 · English origin

Sterling Sterling — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ STUR-ling /
Gender
Girl
Origin
English
Meaning
"Of high quality (Sterling K. Brown + sterling silver)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Medieval (English)

A name that means "of high quality (sterling k. brown + sterling silver)".

Sterling is from the Old English steorling ("little star," referring to early Norman coins) — also referring to sterling silver (92.5% silver). Sterling K. O. J. Save Your Soul. (2022). Sterling Hayden (1916-1986) — male; American actor (Dr. Strangelove 1964, The Godfather 1972 as Captain McCluskey).

Of high quality. Sterling K. Brown — first Black actor to win Lead Drama Actor Emmy (This Is Us, 2017).

The name in its native script.

Sterling
Transliteration
Sterling
Pronunciation
/ ˈstɜːr.lɪŋ /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Sterling stands.

Sterling does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Sterlings before her.

Real people
Sterling K. Brown
American Emmy actor.
born 1976
Sterling Hayden
American actor.
1916 – 1986
In fiction
Sterling
Modern American naming.

Names connected to Sterling.

The number behind Sterling.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Sterling reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.