According to the history of the Municipality, San Esteban was once a wilderness teeming with grasses like the cogon and bagbagotot. The town was thus named Cabagbagototan because of the grass’ abundance. Another legend tells that a certain stranger named Iban or Esteban was stoned to death at the feast of Naglawlawan, a place where they gathered and made offerings to their anitos.  The most coherent tale on how this town was named pertains to the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, who was stoned to death because of trumped-up charge of  blasphemy against Moses and the Law. When the Augustinian fathers came to Ciudad Fernandina and spread out in the year 1625, they founded the parish of San Esteban; but it has always been attached to the town of Santiago until 1910. Since this town had many stones or rocks from which mortar and pestle and other stone products were made, it was logical for the friars to name the place SAN ESTEBAN.