Boy · Old English
Oswald
Say it: OZ-wuld
Meaning
From Old English os 'god' and weald 'power, rule'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
An Anglo-Saxon saint's name revived in the 19th century.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1880s
In the United States
- 4,092 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1886, about 1 in 6,900 boys
- 37 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
| German | Oswald |
|---|
Famous bearers
- Saint Oswald, king of Northumbria
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Anglo-Saxon charters, chronicles and church records
- Lives of the saints and early Christian martyrologies
- 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.