Such a thing will often happen as the result of a celebrity having the name. For instance, famed Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks, whose real name was Stephanie.

Years ago, one of the broadcasters for a Red Sox game was doing some ad read about some event Stevie Nicks was going to be at, but they read her name as "Steve Nicks" instead. Someone else in the booth corrected them, and they responded "I know him well, and I call him Steve". A fan apparently sent them a giant poster of Stevie Nicks, and the others put it up in the booth and teased him about it relentlessly during the next game.

The past tense "was" had me at least looking for an obituary. She is still very much alive

I was referring to the Stephanie part in the past tense. I doubt she's gone by that name since she was a child.

But yes, Stevie is very much still alive.

Interestingly enough, Lindsey, like Lindsey Buckingham, the guitarist of Fleetwood Mac, became a more popular girl's name during Fleetwood Mac's heyday.

Anecdata, but as a USian, it's always been an E/A spelling variation, E male variant, A female variant... YMMV

I'm just going by the article, which has data for both names. If you think it is wrong, take it up with them :)

With the shift happening right after the 1976–1980 square, I'd assume people named their daughter after Stevie Nicks.

In the US, boys would abbreviate Stephen or Steven to Steve. Stevie only for a young boy.

I’m not sure what they are measuring here though - if it’s only birth certificates then I’m sure Stevie is dominated by girls for a long time.

As somebody born with the name Steven I'm curious about the relative popularity of "Steven" vs. "Stephen".

I feel like when I was a child more people were present with a PH, but nowadas virtually nobody. Most of the Stephens I know are "old", and I think "Steve" won.

But no doubt it varies on country, and who you know.

(I legally changed my name from Steven to Steve, a couple of years ago, because it was the only name I'd ever used and it got too tiresome dealing with my official passport, and ID saying one name when I signed/wrote another name on all my official paperwork. To the extent that employers would book flights in one name but my passport was in the other name, cue much hilarity at boarding time..)

My brother was born in 1984 is Stephen. We have only ever called him by that name, Steve never stuck. At the time I thought Steven was the more common spelling already; but we were catholic and he was named for St. Stephen.

I mean, this is US-centric data, but it is probably a shortening of 'Stephanie' or 'Stefanie' [1], the female variant of 'Stephan' or 'Stefan'. It stems from Greek, apparently: Stephanos. Its variant are used entirely throughout Europe, from Portugal to Russia.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie

Now? Let me introduce you to Stevie Nicks.

Don't be silly.

Moon Unit is a girls name.

Stevie is a nickname for the sweetener Stevia.