Opie
A diminutive form of the masculine name Oepius, meaning "servant".
Name Census estimates that about 450 living Americans carry the first name Opie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Opie today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Opie births was 2022 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Opie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Opie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
450
~ 1 in 761,676 Americans
Peak year
2022
50 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,191
Tracked since 1889
Census
Opie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 362 people with the first name Opie, which placed it at #25,958 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,958
National first-name rank
People counted
362
362 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Opie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Opie is White at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (8.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Opie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Opie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.5% · 277
- Black or African American8.6% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 30
- Two or more races3.0% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Opie
Opie leans heavily male at 87.3% of total registrations, but 99 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Opie as a male name
- Ranked #3,191 in 2024
- 38 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (50 births)
Opie as a female name
- Ranked #5,254 in 1928
- 5 female births in 1928
- Peak: 1917 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Opie leans strongly male. 322 people counted with this name were male (88.7%), compared with 41 female bearers (11.3%).
Popularity
Opie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Opie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 214 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Opie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Opie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Opies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Arkansas, West Virginia, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Opie, while Ohio, California, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Opie
The given name Opie is believed to have its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "op" or "opp", which means "offspring" or "child". This name was commonly used in Anglo-Saxon England during the medieval period, particularly in the regions of Mercia and Northumbria.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Opie can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and properties in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The name appears several times in this historical document, suggesting its widespread usage at the time.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Opie de Wodeham was mentioned in the chronicles of the Benedictine monasteries of Bury St. Edmunds and St. Albans. He was a prominent landowner and benefactor to the monasteries during the reign of King Henry II.
During the Renaissance period, the name Opie gained popularity among the nobility and gentry of England. One notable bearer of this name was Sir Opie Cromwell (1535-1598), a distant relative of Oliver Cromwell and a respected member of the English Parliament.
In the 18th century, the name Opie was associated with the renowned English portraitist John Opie (1761-1807), who was widely acclaimed for his exceptional skill in capturing likenesses. His portraits of notable figures such as Lord Nelson and Mary Wollstonecraft are considered masterpieces of the era.
Another historical figure bearing the name Opie was Opie Pritchard (1789-1868), a British naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. He distinguished himself in several battles and was awarded numerous honors for his bravery and leadership.
While the name Opie has its roots in Old English, it has also been used in various forms and spellings across different cultures and languages over the centuries, reflecting the rich tapestry of global naming traditions.
People
Opie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Opie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Opie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Opie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 450 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Opie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 761,676 US residents.
Is Opie a common name?
We classify Opie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 777 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Opie most popular?
The single biggest year for Opie was 2022, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Opie is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Opie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 362 people with the name Opie, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,958 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Opie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Opie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Opie leans strongly male. 322 people counted with this name were male (88.7%), compared with 41 female bearers (11.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Opie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Opie is White at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (8.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Opie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Opie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (277 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Opie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Opie a male name?
Yes, 87.3% of people registered as Opie in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Opie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Opie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Opie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Opie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Opie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.