Othman
An Arabic masculine name meaning "wealth", "fortune", or "blessed".
Name Census estimates that about 497 living Americans carry the first name Othman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Othman today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Othman births was 2022 (46 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Othman. 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 Othman with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
497
~ 1 in 689,647 Americans
Peak year
2022
46 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,031
Tracked since 1977
Census
Othman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 713 people with the first name Othman, which placed it at #15,968 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
#15,968
National first-name rank
People counted
713
713 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Othman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Othman is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.1%) and Two or More Races (6.7%). 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 Othman 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 Othman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 570
- Black or African American9.1% · 65
- Two or more races6.7% · 48
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 14
Popularity
Othman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Othman 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 166 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
Othman 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 Othman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Othmans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Othman
The name Othman is of Arabic origin, derived from the Semitic root "th-m-n" meaning "wealth" or "prosperity." It is a masculine given name that has been in use since ancient times in the Middle East and North Africa.
The earliest recorded use of the name can be traced back to the 7th century AD, when it was borne by the third caliph of Islam, Othman ibn Affan (577-656 AD). He was one of the closest companions of Prophet Muhammad and played a crucial role in the early history of Islam. Othman is credited with compiling the first official version of the Quran, the holy book of Islam.
Throughout Islamic history, the name Othman has been popular among Muslim communities, particularly in the Arab world and Turkey. One notable figure was Othman I (1258-1326), the founder of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled a vast territory spanning parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa for over six centuries.
Another famous bearer of the name was Othman dan Fodio (1754-1817), a Islamic scholar and religious leader who founded the Sokoto Caliphate in present-day northern Nigeria. His teachings and writings had a significant impact on the spread of Islam in West Africa.
In more recent times, Othman Ahmed Ismail Othman (1932-2017) was a Sudanese writer, scholar, and diplomat who served as the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation from 1975 to 1980.
Othman El Kabir (1934-2021) was a prominent Moroccan writer and poet who was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix de la Francophonie de l'Académie française in 2008 for his literary contributions.
While the name Othman is primarily associated with the Islamic world, it has also been adopted by non-Muslim communities in various parts of the world, albeit with different spellings and pronunciations.
People
Othman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Othman 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
Othman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Othman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 497 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Othman 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 689,647 US residents.
Is Othman a common name?
We classify Othman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 503 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Othman most popular?
The single biggest year for Othman was 2022, when 46 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Othman is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Othman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 713 people with the name Othman, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,968 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 Othman 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 Othman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Othman appears almost entirely male. Of the 704 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Othman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Othman is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.1%) and Two or More Races (6.7%). 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 Othman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Othman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (570 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 Othman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Othman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Othman 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 Othman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Othman 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 Othman 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 many people have Othman as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Othman, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.