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Oskar

#1,750 in 2025Boys' name

Possibly deer + friend, through Oscar

Oskar has been given to 3,241 babies in the U.S. since 1916. In 2025 it ranked #1,750 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2016, with 160 recorded.

Babies named Oskar, 2025

1 in 35,600

Oskar over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Oskar: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly deer + friend, through Oscar

Swedish

What Oskar means

Oskar belongs to the name family reached through Oskar → Oscar. Its meaning is “deer + friend”.

Origin, language, and formation

Oskar is used in Czech, Danish, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, German, Norwegian and Polish and additional language sections. Its origins include Swedish.

Oskar comes through English Oscar and Middle Irish Oscar.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Oscar and Oskari.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Oskar is pronounced [ˈoskar].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,241 boys were recorded with the name Oskar between 1916 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 160 in 2016; its best national rank was #1,191 in 2016.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,279 in 2020 to #1,750 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,488 in 2015 to #1,750 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Oskar?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 35,600
93 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 18,400
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#1,750
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
24,710 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Oskar sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5001%

Put another way: gather 24,710 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Oskar. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Oskars were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Oskar was born before 2013 — so the typical Oskar is around 12 today.

Median birth year
2013
About 12 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
40.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
86.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
3,230
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 40.7% of all recorded uses (1,318).

Is Oskar rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−20
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−471
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−262
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.83×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
58.1%
Peak was 2016 (160)
Years since peak
9
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,191
2016

Spellings of Oskar

Oskar is not the most common spelling — Oscar is, with 64.3% against Oskar's 0.98%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Oskar is used

Across 2016–2025, Oskar was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 2,326 boys, against 1 in 13,923 across all states with data. It was least common in North Carolina (1 in 100,000).

143 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 2,326
  2. 2Oregon1 in 5,000
  3. 3Washington1 in 5,882
  4. 4Colorado1 in 8,333
  5. 5Michigan1 in 9,091
  6. 6New York1 in 9,091
  7. 7Illinois1 in 10,000
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in 12,500

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Oskar around the world

Where Oskar ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #349
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1997–2025
    #316
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    2007–2024
    #339
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    1995–2025
    #468
    in 2025
  • France
    1901–2025
    #1,891
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #21
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1995–2024
    #886
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1962–2013
    #276
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Oskar

People whose public names include Oskar, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Oskar in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Oskar. Linked forms have their own page here.

OscarÅskarÒscarÓscarOskariOszkár

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Oskar by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#1,750
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 471
Best rank ever
#1,191
2016
Peak year
2016
160 that year
First recorded
1916
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,241
Count in 2025
93

Names similar to Oskar

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

OmkarMakarOskerZakarAbubakarSrikarRykarYoskarJakarDrakkarDakarSreekarAbukarShankarOnkarAboubakarJoskarSakarBakarJakkarSanskarOzkarShakarShrikar

Names with a curve like Oskar

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Oskar, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ZephaniahPiersonZakariaMikahJaelJetDevFarisEwanViktorCanonKiran

Sibling names for Oskar

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Oskar

Top names of 2016, Oskar's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2016Boys' names starting with OIcelandic Boy NamesShort German Boy NamesUncommon Czech Boy NamesUncommon Danish Boy Names