Ori
A Hebrew name meaning "my light" or "fire".
Name Census estimates that about 1,831 living Americans carry the first name Ori. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Ori today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ori births was 2024 (150 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ori. 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.
Key insights
- • Ori is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 187,195 Americans
Peak year
2024
150 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,564
Tracked since 1971
Gender
Gender distribution for Ori
Ori leans heavily male at 83.0% of total registrations, but 315 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ori as a male name
- Ranked #1,564 in 2024
- 111 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (111 births)
Ori as a female name
- Ranked #3,856 in 2024
- 39 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (39 births)
Popularity
Ori: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ori from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 652 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ori remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ori 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 Ori during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Oris live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. California, New York, Florida recorded the most babies named Ori, while Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 88 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ori
The name Ori has its origins in Hebrew and is derived from the word "or," meaning "light" or "shine." It is a unisex name that has been popular in Israel and among Jewish communities worldwide for centuries.
In ancient Hebrew texts, the name Ori is mentioned as a variation of the name Uriah, which appears in the Book of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. Uriah was a Hittite soldier who served in the army of King David and was famously the husband of Bathsheba.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ori was in the 12th century, when Rabbi Ori ben Shlomo, a prominent Jewish scholar and philosopher from Spain, lived and wrote extensively on Jewish law and ethics.
In the 16th century, Ori Sternhell was a renowned Hebrew grammarian and linguist who made significant contributions to the study of the Hebrew language.
A more recent figure bearing the name Ori was Ori Gersht, an Israeli artist born in 1967, known for his large-scale photographs and video installations exploring themes of history, memory, and identity.
Another notable individual with the name Ori was Ori Inbar, an Israeli entrepreneur and co-founder of the social media platform Houzz, which was launched in 2010.
In the world of sports, Ori Sasson was an Israeli Olympic swimmer who competed in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, specializing in the backstroke events.
While the name Ori has its roots in Hebrew, it has also been adopted in other cultures and languages, such as Japanese and Finnish, where it may have different meanings or associations.
People
Ori + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ori 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
Ori: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ori?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,831 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ori 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 187,195 US residents.
Is Ori a common name?
We classify Ori as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,855 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ori most popular?
The single biggest year for Ori was 2024, when 150 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ori is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Ori a male name?
Yes, 83.0% of people registered as Ori 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.
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.