The word 'stevia' is a modern Latin creation, taken directly from the surname of the 16th-century Spanish botanist and physician Pedro Jaime Esteve (Latinized as Petrus Jacobus Stevus). The plant genus Stevia was named in his honor by the botanist Antonio José Cavanilles in the late 18th century. This practice of naming plants after individuals is common in botanical Latin. The term entered English in the 19th century as the scientific name and later, in the 20th century, became the common name for the plant and its commercial sweetener, demonstrating how eponyms transition into everyday vocabulary.

The word is a modern Latin genus name adopted as a loanword into English. It is not productively segmented using English morphemes.