Recorded in a wide variety of spellings including: Stane, Stain, Stine, Styan, Stiant, Stiants, Styant and Styants, this is an English surname. Although the origin is open to some conjecture and there may be two alternatives,. The first is as one of the many nickname or developed forms of the ancient baptismal name "Stigmund". This was an Anglo-Saxon personal and baptismal name introduced into England about the 6th century a.d, although the surname is much later. The name translates as "Victory protection", although the literal meaning at the time may have been quite different. The second possibility for the origin is also a personal name, in this case Stephen. There are over one hundred surname spelling forms of Stephen in Europe, a name introduced into England about a century after the Norman Invasion of 1066, and much associated with the famous St Stephen. Although strictly nothing to do with it, the name is also associated with the famous Crusades of the 12th century to free the Holy land, and the surrounding religious revival. One of the many medieval forms of Stephen was Styvani, which allowing for post medieval dialects and spelling, comes close to the later surname. Examples of the recordings taken from authentic surviving church registers of the 17th century include Elsabeth Styan, who married Symon Drake at St Margarets, Westminster, on November 6th 1646, during the reign of the infamous King Henry V111 of England (1510 -1547), William Stiant, who married Mary Freeman at St James church, Clerkenwell, on December 14th 1707, and Sarah Styants, who married Henry James Hichisson, at St Anne's Soho, Westminster, on February 7th 1831.

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