Boy names that start with O
Three traditions own this letter. Oliver is a top-five name in the United States and has been a fixture in Britain for longer; Norse O names run from Olaf to Odin; and Yoruba gives the alphabet its most quietly ambitious entries, where Olumide is not a word but a whole sentence of thanks. Each name below links to a full page with meaning, origin, and pairings.
Most popular O names right now
Two O names sit inside the current U.S. Social Security top 100, and these are their real positions. Everything further down this page is rarer than that, so nothing else carries a number.
- #3OliverOL-iv-erNorman French
Traditionally read as olive tree, though it may be a Germanic name that Latin later reshaped. It was the most-registered boys' name in England and Wales through much of the 2010s before America caught up.
- #31OwenOH-enWelsh
Well-born, noble; some read it as young warrior. Two syllables, no hard consonants, and the only Welsh name to hold a steady place in the American top 50.
Classic O names
- OscarOSS-kurIrish
Deer friend, or possibly spear of god — the two derivations have never been reconciled. Oscar Wilde gave it wit; Sweden gave it two kings.
- OttoOT-ohGerman
Wealth, fortune, prosperity. A palindrome, a Holy Roman emperor's name, and Bismarck's. It has more weight than four letters should be able to carry.
- OtisOH-tissEnglish
Son of Ode, and behind that the same wealth-word as Otto. Otis Redding turned a surname into something warm.
- Obadiahoh-buh-DY-uhHebrew
Servant of Yahweh. The prophet Obadiah wrote the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible — twenty-one verses, and out.
- Orlandoor-LAN-dohItalian
Renowned in the land; the Italian Roland. Ariosto's Orlando Furioso is one of the great long poems of the Renaissance.
- Orionoh-RY-unGreek
The hunter of the constellation; the root of the name itself is unknown. Three stars in a row make it the easiest name in the sky to find.
- OakleyOHK-leeEnglish
Oak clearing — a glade among oak trees. An English place name that reads as a nature name to modern ears.
- Octaviook-TAH-vee-ohSpanish
Eighth. Roman families numbered their children, and the habit outlived the empire; Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990.
Norse and Nordic O names
- OdinOH-dinNorse
From óðr: fury, frenzy, poetic inspiration. The god who traded an eye for wisdom, and the boldest name on this page.
- OlafOH-lafNorse
Ancestor's heir. Olaf II of Norway died in battle in 1030 and became the country's patron saint within a year.
- OlaOO-lahNorwegian
The ancestors' heir, worn down from Olaf. Ola Nordmann is Norway's everyman, the figure other countries call John Doe.
- OddODNorwegian
The point of a spear or blade. It means nothing strange in Norwegian, which is worth knowing before you use it in English.
- OveOH-vehDanish
Disputed, from the Old Danish Aghi. Fredrik Backman's novel A Man Called Ove introduced it to readers who had never met one.
- ØysteinOY-staynNorwegian
Stone of good fortune — island and stone, joined. Three medieval kings of Norway carried it.
- OyvindOY-vinNorwegian
Traditionally read as winner of the island. The second element is contested, but the reading is the one Norwegians grew up with.
- OtsoOT-sohFinnish
The bear, in the careful old word for it. Finnish hunters avoided the animal's real name, so the polite substitute became the name.
- OnniOHN-neeFinnish
Luck and happiness in a single word — Finnish makes no distinction between the two.
- OivaOY-vahFinnish
Excellent, splendid, first-rate. An adjective of straightforward approval, handed to a boy.
Yoruba and Igbo O names
West African names are usually clauses rather than words, and O is where they cluster: Olú- opens a Yoruba name about God or a lord, Obi opens an Igbo name about the heart.
- Olumideoh-LOO-mee-dayYoruba
My lord has arrived — thanksgiving in the shape of a sentence, said about the child's birth.
- Olamideoh-LAH-mee-dayYoruba
My wealth has arrived, and the wealth is the child. The Lagos rapper Olamide has carried it well beyond Nigeria.
- Olusegunoh-loo-SHEH-goonYoruba
The Lord conquers — literally, the Lord defeats the war. Olusegun Obasanjo led Nigeria twice, decades apart.
- Olayinkaoh-lah-YEEN-kahYoruba
Honour surrounds me: fortune standing in a ring around the child rather than sitting on him.
- Obafemioh-BAH-feh-meeYoruba
The king loves me, and the king may well be God. Obafemi Awolowo has a Nigerian university named after him.
- ObiOH-beeIgbo
Heart — and also the room at the centre of a family compound, where the head of the household receives people.
- Obinnaoh-BEEN-nahIgbo
The father's heart: the place where his attention lives. Built from the same obi.
- Obioraoh-bee-OH-rahIgbo
The mind of the people — the community's heart, and by extension its will.
- Ozoemenaoh-zoh-eh-MEH-nahIgbo
May it not happen again. A name given after a family has buried someone, and one of the frankest names in any language.
O names from around the world
- OmarOH-marArabic
Long-lived, flourishing. Omar Khayyam wrote the quatrains; the name has been in steady use from Morocco to Malaysia ever since.
- Omarioh-MAH-reeSwahili
Flourishing, long-lived — the East African form of Omar, with the vowel Swahili adds to almost everything.
- Omidoh-MEEDPersian
Hope. One word, no metaphor, no hedging. Persian names are often this direct.
- Orhanor-HAHNTurkish
Great khan; a ruler above rulers. Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.
- Osmanos-MAHNTurkish
The Turkish form of Uthman, from an old Arabian animal name. Osman I founded the dynasty the West called Ottoman after him.
- Ozanoh-ZAHNTurkish
A bard: a minstrel who sings verse he has written himself. The word predates the Ottomans.
- Özgüruhz-GOORTurkish
Free, independent, answerable to nobody. Modern Turkish coined it, and parents chose it as a statement.
- Oleksandro-lek-SANDRUkrainian
Defender of men — Ukraine's Alexander, and one of the commonest men's names in the country.
- OndřejON-drzhayCzech
Manly, courageous; the Czech Andrew. The ř in the middle is a sound almost no other language has.
Unique O names
- OisínUSH-eenIrish
Little deer, fawn. Son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and the poet of the Fianna, who came back from Tír na nÓg three centuries too late.
- OwainOH-wineWelsh
The Welsh original that Owen anglicises. Owain Glyndŵr led the last great Welsh rising against English rule.
- OsianOSH-anWelsh
Fawn, little deer — the sense belongs to the Irish Oisín, borrowed into Welsh and now popular in Wales.
- OssianOSS-ee-unLiterary
Little deer again, in the spelling James Macpherson invented in the 1760s for the epics he claimed to have translated.
- Oziasoh-ZY-usHebrew via Greek
My strength is Yahweh. The Greek form of Uzziah, and the reason a very old name suddenly sounds current.
- OzOZHebrew
Strength in Hebrew, where it stands alone; elsewhere it is short for whatever Os- name lies behind it.
- OierOY-ehrBasque
The Basque form of the old name Oger. Common enough in the Basque Country, essentially unknown outside it.