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, (41), son of the aforesaid E. D. Stephens, (16), once told the writer that the old family name was STEPHENSHIP. In a conversation between the writer, (182), and Rev. M. A. Jordan, a stepson of Col. John Stephens, (15), a brother of E. D. Stephens, (16), Mr. Jordan said that, according to his information, the original family name was STEPHENS O'BIVENS. Mr. Gilbert Cope, an eminent genealogist, living at West Chester, Pennsylvania, clears these discrepancies by stating that the name was STEPHENS AP EVANS; that is, Stephens the son of Evans. It is thus easy to see how easily one confused it into Stephenship, and the other into Stephens O'Bivens. Accordingly, it must be true that Joshua Stephens, Senior, (3), and perhaps his brothers, David, (5), and Ebenezer, (4), adopted the permanent surname of Stephens. In fact, a family tradition is that the emigrant ancester did adopt this name of Stephens. The father of Joshua Stephens, Sr., (3), who, it is supposed, remained in Wales, may have been named Stephens, (2), and his father's name may have been Evans, (1); indeed, this theory is reasonable both from tradition and the etymology as given in the foregoing. EVANS is a Welsh form of JOHN, a Greek word of Hebrew derivation, meaning "the grace of God." This tradition is further strengthened by another: that the immigrant ancestors of the family, sometime after their arrival in Pennsylvania, fell heir to their father's estate in Wales. In court they were required to give additional evidence as to their identity by reason of their having changed their names, before their shares of the estate were distributed to them. Through these official channels should be found the missing links, which will connect the American Lines with the Welsh, and extend the genealogical tree across the Atlantic Ocean. By these means only can the family seat, ancestry, arms and name be discovered, for the item of the estate witnesses the fact that it was of no "common origin." The indifference of the Welsh in the use of surnames is well shown by the transcript of some documents of an estate of an old Stephens in Pennsylvania, in the possession of the writer, wherein two brothers are named, one "Evans Stephens" and the other "Stephens Evans."