# 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