Otniel
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "lion of God" or "force of God".
Name Census estimates that about 127 living Americans carry the first name Otniel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Otniel today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Otniel births was 2018 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Otniel. 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 Otniel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
127
~ 1 in 2,698,853 Americans
Peak year
2018
22 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,923
Tracked since 1980
Census
Otniel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 362 people with the first name Otniel, 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
Hispanic or Latino
82.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Otniel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Otniel is Hispanic at 82.9%. The next largest groups are White (11.6%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Otniel 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 Otniel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino82.9% · 300
- White11.6% · 42
- Black or African American3.9% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 6
Popularity
Otniel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Otniel from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 40 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Otniel 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 Otniel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Otniel
The given name Otniel has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is derived from the biblical Hebrew words "otnah" meaning "force" or "strength" and "el" meaning "God". Thus, the name roughly translates to "force of God" or "strength of God".
Otniel is a name found in the Hebrew Bible, specifically in the Book of Joshua. It was the name of one of the first judges of Israel, who led the Israelites after the conquest of Canaan. According to the biblical account, Otniel was the son of Kenaz and the younger brother of Caleb. He captured the city of Kiriath-sepher (also known as Debir) and was rewarded with the hand of Achsah, Caleb's daughter, in marriage.
The earliest recorded use of the name Otniel dates back to the ancient Hebrew scriptures, where it appears in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges. In these texts, Otniel is portrayed as a valiant warrior and a leader of the Israelites during a period of conflict with the neighboring Canaanites.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Otniel. One of the earliest was Otniel ben Kenaz (c. 1200 BCE), the biblical judge mentioned above. Another was Otniel Hayyim Akerman (1727-1807), a prominent Hebrew grammarian and author from Poland.
In the 19th century, Otniel Marsh (1831-1899) was an American paleontologist and a professor at Yale University, known for his contributions to the study of dinosaurs. Otniel E. Gillespie (1892-1980) was an American artist and illustrator, best known for his illustrations in books and magazines.
Otniel Sarig (1923-2004) was an Israeli politician and a member of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) from 1965 to 1977, representing the Labor Party. Otniel Schneller (born 1946) is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset, serving from 1988 to 2006 for various right-wing parties.
While not an exhaustive list, these are some notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Otniel, reflecting its biblical and Hebrew origins.
People
Otniel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Otniel 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
Otniel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Otniel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 127 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Otniel 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 2,698,853 US residents.
Is Otniel a common name?
We classify Otniel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 129 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Otniel most popular?
The single biggest year for Otniel was 2018, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Otniel is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Otniel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 362 people with the name Otniel, 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 Otniel 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 Otniel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Otniel leans strongly male. 359 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Otniel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Otniel is Hispanic at 82.9%. The next largest groups are White (11.6%) and Black (3.9%). 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 Otniel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Otniel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.9% (300 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 Otniel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Otniel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Otniel 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 Otniel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Otniel 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 Otniel 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 Americans are named Otniel?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Otniel at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.