The Chinese word "斯蒂芬" is formed through phonetic transliteration, where each character is chosen solely for its sound to approximate the English name "Stephen": "斯" (sī) corresponds to the initial "St" sound, "蒂" (dì) matches the middle "te" sound, and "芬" (fēn) represents the final "phen" sound, resulting in a sequence that mimics the original pronunciation without conveying meaning.