Stearns (surname)

Stearns is a surname derived from the Old English Stierne, which meant severe or strict. Variations include Stearn, Sterne and Stern. Notable people and characters with the name include:

People

• Asahel Stearns (1774–1839), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts
• Betsey Ann Stearns (1830-1914), American inventor
• Bill Stearns (1853–1898), professional baseball pitcher
• Carl Leo Stearns (1892–1972), American astronomer
• Cassius Clement Stearns (1838–1910), American composer
• Charles Woodward Stearns, American writer
• Charles Thomas Stearns, American politician
• Charlotte Champe Stearns (1843–1929), social worker, poet and mother of T. S. Eliot
• Cheryl Stearns, American skydiver
• Clark Daniel Stearns (1870–1944), 9th Governor of American Samoa
• Cliff Stearns (born 1941), U.S. Representative from Florida
• David Stearns, American baseball executive
• Eben S. Stearns (1819–1887), American educator
• Foster Waterman Stearns (1881–1956), U.S. Representative from New Hampshire
• Frank Stearns, close friend of Calvin Coolidge
• Frank Preston Stearns (1846–1917), writer and abolitionist from Massachusetts
• Frederick Kimball Stearns (1854–1924), businessman (see also Frederick Stearns Building)
• George Luther Stearns (1809–1867), American industrialist and merchant
• George McLellan Stearns (1901–1979), Canadian Member of Parliament
• Glenn Stearns (born 1963), American businessman, founder of Stearns Lending
• Guy Beckley Stearns (1870–1947), American physician specializing in homeopathy
• Henry A. Stearns (1825–1910), Rhode Island industrialist and Lieutenant Governor
• Howard Stearns, football coach for Eastern New Mexico University
• Jason Stearns (born 1976), American writer, coordinator of a UN investigation into the wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Jeff Chiba Stearns, Canadian independent animation filmmaker
• John Stearns (1951–2022), baseball player
• John Stearns (physician) (1770–1848), US physician
• John Goddard Stearns Jr. (1843–1917), Boston architect and co-founder of the firm Peabody & Stearns
• Junius Brutus Stearns (1810–1885), American painter
• Justin K. Stearns (born 1974), American academic
• Justus Smith Stearns, (1845–1933), Michigan businessman
• Katee Stearns, beauty queen from Orono, Maine
• Marcellus Stearns (1839–1891), the 11th governor of Florida
• Marshall Stearns (1908–1966), American jazz critic and musicologist
• Martha Stearns Marshall, eighteenth-century Separate Baptist preacher
• Michael Stearns (born 1948), American ambient musician
• Nellie George Stearns (1855–1936), artist and art teacher
• Onslow Stearns, American railroad builder and executive
• Ozora P. Stearns (1831–1896), American politician
• Peter Stearns, professor of history at George Mason University
• Peyton Stearns (b. 2001), American tennis player
• R. H. Stearns (1824–1909), tradesman, philanthropist, and politician from Massachusetts
• Richard Stearns (disambiguation), several people
• Robert Edwards Carter Stearns (1827–1909), American conchologist
• Shubal Stearns (1706–1771), American evangelist and preacher
• Stephen C. Stearns, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University
• Tim Stearns, Professor of Biology at Stanford University
• Theodore Stearns (1880–1935), American composer
• Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888–1965), British-American poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.
• Winfrid Alden Stearns (1852–1909), American naturalist

Fictional characters

• Mike Stearns, a fictional character in 1632

See also

• Sterns (surname)
• Stearn, surname