Steve Wozniak was born in San Jose, California, the son of Margaret Elaine (Kern) and Jacob Francis “Jerry” Wozniak. He is of Polish and Swiss-German ancestry on his father’s side and of German, Irish, and English descent on his mother’s.^[5][6]

The name on Wozniak’s birth certificate is “Stephan Gary Wozniak”, but Steve’s mother said that she intended it to be spelled “Stephen”, and “Steve” is what he uses.^[1]:18

Wozniak has been referred to frequently by the nickname “Woz”, “The Wonderful Wizard of Woz”, “The Second Steve”, or “The Woz”;^[7] “WoZ” (short for “Wheels of Zeus“) is also the name of a company Wozniak founded. The city of San Jose named a street “Woz Way” in his honour.

In the early 1970s, Wozniak was also known as “Berkeley Blue” in the phone phreak community, after he made a blue box.^[8]