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NameAlmanac

Oscar

Boys’ name Recorded 1880-2025

Oscar was given to 1,620 boys in 2025, #223 among boys’ names; 214,168 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).

An estimated 140,000 Americans named Oscar and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (65% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 17 and 45.

Babies named Oscar each year, first recorded in 1880
Oscar, 1880-2025; highest in 2006.1k2k3k4k188019001920194019601980200020252006 peak: 3,607
Oscar, 1880-2025; highest in 2006.1k2k3k4k188019001920194019601980200020252006 peak: 3,607
Oscar, 1880-2025; highest in 2006.1k2k3k4k18801905193019551980200520252006 peak: 3,607
Oscar, 1880-2025; highest in 2006.1k2k3k4k18801930198020252006 peak: 3,607

Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).

Oscar or OskarNames of the 2000sNames in California

Births of Oscar by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.

What does Oscar mean?

Wiktionary, English section

Oscar is “a male given name from Irish or Old English.”

Exact origin uncertain. Resuscitated by James Mcpherson in The Works of Ossian (1765). Napoleon, an admirer of the Ossianic poems, chose it for his godson Oscar Bernadotte, who became a king of Sweden. The modern given name is a conflation of two unrelated names: first, Middle Irish Oscar (the name of Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s grandson in Irish mythology), from Middle Irish os (“deer”) + cara (“friend”); and second, Old English Ōscār, Ōsgār (personal name, literally “spear of the gods/spear of God”), from Old English ōs (“god”) and gār (“spear”). Compare German Ansgar (personal name), Danish Asker, Asger (personal name), Norwegian Asgeir (personal name), Icelandic Ásgeir (personal name). (Academy Award): Disputed. Said to have been named by actress Bette Davis after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, or by secretary Margaret Herrick after her cousin Oscar Pierce.

/ˈɑs.kɚ/

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary, entry Oscar (English), CC BY‑SA 4.0. Quoted from the entry; text after a cross-reference to another sense is left out.

Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).

How popular is Oscar?

#223 among boys’ names, 2025

Oscar fell from #181 in 2015 to #223 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 1.2 to 0.95 per 1,000.

3,607 babies in 2006, the peak

Oscar peaked in 2006, when 3,607 babies were given it (3,601 boys, #118 among boys’ names). The 1,620 births of 2025 are 45% of that peak.

Oscar by year
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 boys
20251,620#2230.95
20241,669#2161.0
20231,702#2161.0
20221,892#2011.1
20211,697#2261.0
20201,766#2141.0
20191,892#2051.1
20181,956#2061.1
20172,048#1921.1
20162,261#1771.2
Every recorded year (146)
YearBirthsRankPer 1,000 boys
20152,299#1811.2
20142,321#1841.2
20132,242#1781.2
20122,198#1771.2
20112,378#1621.3
20102,665#1471.4
20093,117#1311.6
20083,563#1201.7
20073,548#1211.7
20063,601#1181.8
20053,461#1171.7
20043,348#1231.7
20033,301#1221.7
20023,233#1201.7
20013,195#1221.6
20003,178#1221.6
19993,126#1161.6
19983,006#1291.6
19972,970#1271.6
19963,000#1251.6
19952,730#1301.4
19942,847#1221.5
19932,847#1231.5
19922,586#1311.3
19912,445#1341.2
19902,328#1351.1
19891,966#1521.0
19881,733#1600.91
19871,661#1630.89
19861,572#1690.85
19851,592#1690.86
19841,421#1780.79
19831,370#1830.76
19821,486#1750.82
19811,464#1710.82
19801,396#1760.78
19791,312#1840.76
19781,311#1790.80
19771,273#1810.77
19761,231#1830.78
19751,235#1840.79
19741,198#1890.76
19731,068#2030.69
19721,111#2050.69
19711,066#2200.60
19701,042#2250.56
19691,004#2290.56
1968903#2380.52
1967934#2340.54
1966943#2280.53
1965989#2320.53
1964999#2440.50
19631,021#2350.50
19621,007#2450.49
19611,042#2450.49
19601,066#2450.50
19591,087#2430.51
19581,070#2370.50
19571,200#2170.56
19561,132#2170.54
19551,155#2110.56
19541,268#1970.62
19531,196#2030.61
19521,087#2030.56
19511,067#1990.57
19501,103#1920.62
19491,124#1860.63
19481,098#1840.63
19471,110#1860.61
19461,017#1820.63
1945939#1760.70
1944910#1780.67
19431,074#1690.75
1942958#1720.69
19411,022#1650.83
1940936#1670.81
19391,000#1590.90
19381,024#1580.92
1937988#1540.93
19361,008#1531.0
19351,091#1431.0
19341,096#1431.1
19331,111#1421.1
19321,254#1381.2
19311,334#1291.3
19301,467#1241.3
19291,482#1171.4
19281,464#1221.3
19271,635#1131.5
19261,715#1051.5
19251,754#991.6
19241,819#991.6
19231,880#961.7
19222,007#921.8
19211,978#921.8
19202,006#901.9
19191,991#882.0
19182,113#872.1
19171,961#872.1
19161,916#862.2
19151,788#882.1
19141,553#772.4
19131,249#762.4
19121,157#732.7
1911636#682.8
1910505#732.6
1909459#702.8
1908476#653.1
1907483#593.3
1906412#643.1
1905436#563.3
1904442#543.4
1903427#513.6
1902397#553.2
1901422#474.0
1900563#473.7
1899447#464.2
1898546#414.5
1897543#374.8
1896539#414.5
1895549#394.7
1894601#345.2
1893574#335.1
1892634#335.2
1891551#325.4
1890628#295.7
1889572#325.2
1888647#315.4
1887574#295.7
1886645#265.8
1885623#285.8
1884615#305.4
1883607#275.8
1882625#285.5
1881530#285.3
1880544#294.9

Download Oscar’s births by year (CSV)

Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.

Is Oscar a boy’s or a girl’s name?

Oscar has been given almost only to boys: 1,070 girls in 146 years of records.

Girls and boys named Oscar: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.

How many people are named Oscar, and how old are they?

140,000 alive in 2026, estimated

That is 65% of the 214,168 Americans ever recorded as Oscar. The median Oscar alive today is 28 years old; half are between 17 and 45.

The 2020 Census counted 212,946 people named Oscar (443 women and girls, 212,503 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 136,472 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.

Alive today, by age

100-10931
90-99788
80-893,230
70-796,850
60-697,990
50-599,510
40-4913,200
30-3923,200
20-29 (median)31,800
10-1926,300
0-916,100

Alive today, by generation

By generation
GenerationBornAlive
Silent Generation1928-19453,570
Baby Boomers1946-196413,800
Generation X1965-198016,100
Millennials1981-199631,700
Generation Z1997-201249,200
Generation Alpha2013-202525,200

An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.

Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).

Where are babies named Oscar born?

The states with the most babies named Oscar are Texas, California and New York, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.

States with the most births: girls and boys together; rank among boys’ names in the state in 2025
StateBirths 2025Rank, boysvs. national
Texas267#1472.4×
California241#1612.2×
New York85#2320.7×
Florida71#2850.9×
Illinois58#2040.9×
North Carolina49#2580.9×
Washington47#1880.7×
Arizona46#1911.8×
Ohio45#2790.3×
Georgia44#2841.1×

Where Oscar is more common than its national share predicts

Relative to its national share, Oscar is most over-represented in Texas: since 1910 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.

Texas2.41×
California2.16×
Arizona1.81×
New Mexico1.24×
Nevada1.24×
Mississippi1.16×
Alabama1.09×
Georgia1.08×

Bars start at 1× (as often as the national share predicts).

States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Oscar with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.

Names spelled alike

Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 217,619 babies since 1880, Oscar is the most given (98% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,620 of their 1,713 babies (95%), again the most given.

Oscar and the names spelled alike
NameSince 1880Births 2025Peak year
Oscar214,1681,6202006
Oskar3,241932016
Osker210under 51920

Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.

Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Oscar

Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.

NameRecorded1880-2025
Anton23,936
Alonzo46,109
Chauncey10,193
Moses43,342
Amos36,600
Abner9,454

Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.

More about Oscar and names like it

  1. Compare Oscar and OskarBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
  2. The most given names of the 2000sOscar peaked in 2006.
  3. California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Oscar since 1910.
  4. Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Oscar: every such name, by how often it is given.
  5. The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Oscar.
  6. The names of Generation ZMost people named Oscar alive today were born 1997-2012.
  7. Names starting with OMost given first.

Compare Oscar with another name