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