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Otello

Boys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Otello has been given to 6 babies in the U.S. since 1929. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1929, with 6 recorded.

Babies named Otello, 1929

1 in 365,000

Otello over time, 1880–2025

Boys
024618801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Otello: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Otello means

Otello is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Otello is used in Italian.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Italian, Otello is pronounced /oˈtɛl.lo/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6 boys were recorded with the name Otello between 1929 and 1929. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1929; its best national rank was #3,846 in 1929.

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 Otello?

Otello had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1929, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1929
1 in 365,000
6 of 2,192,103 births
Among boys only
1 in 179,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1929
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
253,243 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Otello 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 1929 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 253,243 children born in 1929 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Otello. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Otellos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Otello was born before 1929 — so the typical Otello is around 96 today.

Median birth year
1929
About 96 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
100.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (6).

Is Otello 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1929 (6)
Years since peak
96
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#3,846
1929

Spellings of Otello

Otello is not the most common spelling — Odell is, with 67.4% against Otello's 0.03%.

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.

Otello around the world

Where Otello 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.

  • France
    1915–1938
    #753
    in 1938

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Otello by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,846
1929
Peak year
1929
6 that year
First recorded
1929
Last recorded
1929
All-time count
6
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Otello

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

AnelloKalloKavelloMurilloArmelloArlloOteyCatelloDangelloCamelloMelloKamelloMonchelloCostelloRaffaelloLeonelloDeangelloAntonelloDialloRoemelloAngelloOthelloRamelloCamillo

Sibling names for Otello

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 Otello

Top names of 1929, Otello's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1929Boys' names starting with OOpera Names