Stephen (honorific)

The name Stephen (Serbo-Croatian: Stefan/Стефан, Stjepan/Стјепан, Stipan/Стипан, and others), long popular among South Slavic monarchs, was used as an honorific or even as sort of a royal title by various rulers of Serbia and claimants to the Serbian throne, most notably the Nemanjić kings of Serbia and the Kotromanić kings of Bosnia.

The name Stephen is derived from Greek Stephanos (Στέφανος), meaning "crown". It has had hundreds of variants in Serbo-Croatian language, most of which are hypocoristics that can now only be deduced from surnames.Early Slavs did not use the voice /f/, so the Greek Stephanos was adapted into Stjepan (Стјепан) and Stipan (Стипан) in modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, Šćepan (Шћепан) in modern-day Montenegro, and Stevan (Стеван) and Stepan (Степан) in modern-day Serbia. The Serbian Orthodox Church, however, retained the original pronunciation (minus the suffix -os) in its liturgy, leading to the form Stefan (Стєфань) being used to refer to the (mostly canonized) Serbian kings. The Swiss Slavist Robert Zett noted that the usage of Stefan indicated social hierarchy, being an honorific rather than a regnal name: while Uroš I (r. 1243–76) used Stefan, his son was christened Stepan. Uroš IV Dušan (r. 1331–55) signed as Stefan but humbly used Stepan in a prayer book. Some Serbian kings minted coins with St. Stephen called Stefan on the obverse and themselves called Stepan on the reverse.

...
Wikipedia