Boy · Uncertain; possibly Scottish Gaelic via the Ossian poems
Oskar
Say it: OS-kar
Meaning
Uncertain. Taken from Macpherson's Ossian poems; it may be Gaelic for 'deer friend', but this is not established.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Brought into Scandinavia when Napoleon chose it for his godson, the future Oscar I, and among Sweden's most popular names today.
Its wave through time
Popular now
In the United States
- 2,666 babies given this name since 1916
- At its height in 2016, about 1 in 11,800 boys
- 142 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Oscar
| English | Oscar |
|---|---|
| Finnish | Oskari |
Famous bearers
- Oscar I, king of Sweden and Norway, named by his godfather Napoleon
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Royal and noble genealogies
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.