Otis
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune".
Name Census estimates that about 28,170 living Americans carry the first name Otis. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Otis today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Otis births was 1920 (1,056 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Otis. 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 Otis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Otis is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 887 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
28K
~ 1 in 12,167 Americans
Peak year
1920
1,056 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#730
Tracked since 1880
Census
Otis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 21,416 people with the first name Otis, which placed it at #1,536 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
#1,536
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
21,416 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
55.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Otis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Otis is Black at 55.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.1%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Otis 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 Otis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American55.2% · 11,825
- White37.1% · 7,948
- Two or more races3.8% · 812
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 501
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 203
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 127
Gender
Gender distribution for Otis
Otis leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 887 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Otis as a male name
- Ranked #730 in 2024
- 358 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (1,031 births)
Otis as a female name
- Ranked #10,406 in 1976
- 5 female births in 1976
- Peak: 1927 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Otis appears almost entirely male. Of the 21,414 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Otis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Otis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 9,551 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Otis 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 Otis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Otis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, Alabama recorded the most babies named Otis, while Rhode Island, Hawaii, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,087 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Otis
The name Otis has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "Ota," which was a diminutive form of various Germanic names beginning with the element "od," meaning wealth or prosperity. It likely emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Otis can be found in the Domesday Book, a famous manuscript compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror, where it appears as a surname. The name's transition from a surname to a given name likely occurred in the following centuries.
In the Middle Ages, the name Otis was not particularly common, but it did hold some prominence. Saint Otis, a 4th-century Christian martyr from Gaul (modern-day France), was one of the earliest known individuals with this name. His feast day is celebrated on August 18th in the Catholic Church.
During the Renaissance period, the name Otis gained more popularity, particularly in England. One notable bearer was Otis Bathurst (1585-1629), an English lawyer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament.
In the 18th century, Otis Humphrey (1676-1745), an English businessman and philanthropist, made significant contributions to the establishment of the Foundling Hospital in London, one of the earliest charitable institutions for abandoned children.
As the name gained wider recognition, it began to appear in various literary works. One of the earliest examples is Otis Warren, a character in the novel "The Pioneers" by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1823.
The 19th century saw several notable individuals named Otis, including Otis Everett (1799-1851), an American inventor and manufacturer of the Everett Edge Tool Company, and Otis Bardwell (1818-1900), a prominent American abolitionist and educator.
Perhaps the most famous bearer of the name Otis was Elisha Graves Otis (1811-1861), the American inventor of the safety elevator, whose innovation revolutionized the design and construction of modern buildings.
Other notable figures throughout history include Otis Skinner (1858-1942), an American actor and playwright; Otis Redding (1941-1967), an influential American singer-songwriter and record producer; and Otis Nixon (born 1959), a former Major League Baseball player.
While the name Otis may have ancient roots, it has endured through the centuries and continues to be used in various parts of the world, carrying a sense of prosperity and wealth from its Old English origins.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Otis
People
Otis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Otis 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
Otis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Otis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 28,170 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Otis 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 12,167 US residents.
Is Otis a common name?
We classify Otis as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 61,540 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Otis most popular?
The single biggest year for Otis was 1920, when 1,056 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Otis is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Otis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 21,416 people with the name Otis, or 7.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,536 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 Otis 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 Otis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Otis appears almost entirely male. Of the 21,414 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Otis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Otis is Black at 55.2%. The next largest groups are White (37.1%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Otis most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Otis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.2% (11,825 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 Otis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Otis a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Otis 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 Otis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Otis 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 Otis 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 Otis as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Otis on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.