Ottie
Diminutive form of Otto, a German name meaning "prosperous" or "wealthy".
Name Census estimates that about 235 living Americans carry the first name Ottie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 67.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Ottie today is around 77 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ottie births was 1917 (63 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ottie. 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 Ottie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ottie was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • The typical person named Ottie is about 77 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Otties were born before 1959.
People living today
235
~ 1 in 1,458,529 Americans
Peak year
1917
63 babies that year
Average age
77
years old
1975 SSA rank
#5,285
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ottie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 356 people with the first name Ottie, which placed it at #26,232 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
#26,232
National first-name rank
People counted
356
356 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ottie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ottie is White at 73.3%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Ottie 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 Ottie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.3% · 261
- Black or African American21.6% · 77
- Two or more races2.8% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Ottie
Ottie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,884 total registrations, 609 (32.3%) were male and 1,275 (67.7%) were female.
Ottie as a male name
- Ranked #5,285 in 1975
- 6 male births in 1975
- Peak: 1921 (23 births)
Ottie as a female name
- Ranked #17,016 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1917 (53 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ottie on both sides of the split. Of the 362 people counted with this name, 205 were male (56.6%) and 157 were female (43.4%).
Popularity
Ottie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ottie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 396 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
Ottie 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 Ottie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Otties live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Ottie, while Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ottie
The name Ottie is a diminutive form of the Germanic name Otto, which means "prosperous" or "wealthy" in Old High German. It originated in the 9th century and was derived from the Old High German word "ot" meaning "possession" or "wealth."
The name Otto gained popularity in the Holy Roman Empire, where several Holy Roman Emperors bore this name, including Otto I (912-973), who was crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor in 962. Otto III (980-1002) was another notable Holy Roman Emperor who helped in the spread of this name.
In medieval times, the name Ottie was a common nickname or pet form of Otto, particularly in regions where German was spoken. It appeared in various written records and historical documents from that era.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Ottie was Ottie von Wittelsbach (1109-1183), a Bavarian nobleman and member of the House of Wittelsbach, one of the oldest and most prestigious noble families in Europe.
Another notable bearer of the name was Ottie von Wolfskehl (1247-1312), a German knight and crusader who participated in the Seventh Crusade led by Louis IX of France in the 13th century.
In the 14th century, Ottie von Zollern (1320-1379) was a German count and the progenitor of the Hohenzollern dynasty, which ruled Prussia and later the German Empire.
During the Renaissance, Ottie Brunfels (1488-1534) was a renowned German theologian, botanist, and one of the founders of the scientific study of plants.
In more recent history, Ottie Moore (1914-1998) was an American jazz double-bassist and vocalist, known for his work with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in the bebop era.
People
Ottie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ottie 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
Ottie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ottie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 235 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ottie 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 1,458,529 US residents.
Is Ottie a common name?
We classify Ottie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,884 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ottie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ottie was 1917, when 63 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ottie is about 77 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ottie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 356 people with the name Ottie, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,232 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 Ottie 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 Ottie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ottie on both sides of the split. Of the 362 people counted with this name, 205 were male (56.6%) and 157 were female (43.4%). 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 Ottie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ottie is White at 73.3%. The next largest groups are Black (21.6%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Ottie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ottie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.3% (261 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 Ottie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ottie a female name?
Yes, 67.7% of people registered as Ottie in the SSA data are female. 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 Ottie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ottie 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 Ottie 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 the name Ottie?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Ottie, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.