BookRix

The name STEPHENS is of Greek derivation, and means a "crown". Just how it came to be adopted by the ancester of this family is unknown. The Welsh seldom used surnames at that period, one name usually sufficing; the son taking his father's name with the Welsh suffix "AP," meaning "son of"; thus STEPHENS AP EVANS, meaning Stephens the son of Evans, while the latter would be Evans Ap somebody else. W. H. Stephens, son of the aforesaid E. D. Stephens, once told the writer that the old family name was STEPHENSHIP.