Oswald
A masculine given name of Old English origin meaning "divine power".
Name Census estimates that about 1,948 living Americans carry the first name Oswald. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Oswald today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Oswald births was 1916 (107 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Oswald. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Oswald with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 175,952 Americans
Peak year
1916
107 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,121
Tracked since 1880
Census
Oswald in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,809 people with the first name Oswald, which placed it at #5,900 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,900
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,809 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Oswald
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Oswald is Black at 42.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.7%) and White (22.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Oswald described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Oswald at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.1% · 1,182
- Hispanic or Latino28.7% · 806
- White22.2% · 624
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 118
- Two or more races2.5% · 70
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 9
Popularity
Oswald: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Oswald from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 763 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Oswald remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Oswald by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Oswald during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Oswalds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Oswald, while Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Oswald
The name Oswald is of Old English origin, derived from the elements "os" meaning "god" and "weald" meaning "power" or "rule". It can be translated as "divine power" or "rule by God". The name dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
Oswald was a popular name among the Anglo-Saxon nobility and royalty. It gained prominence with Saint Oswald, the King of Northumbria from 634 to 642 AD. He was renowned for his efforts in spreading Christianity throughout his kingdom and was eventually venerated as a saint and martyr after his death in battle.
The name Oswald can be found in various ancient texts and historical records from the Anglo-Saxon era, including the Venerable Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is Oswald, the son of King Ethelred of Mercia, who lived in the 7th century. Another notable bearer of the name was Oswald of Worcester, an English bishop and scholar who lived from around 925 to 992 AD.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Oswald:
1. Saint Oswald (604-642 AD), the King of Northumbria and a Christian martyr.
2. Oswald of Worcester (925-992 AD), an English bishop and scholar.
3. Oswald von Wolkenstein (1376-1445), an Austrian nobleman, diplomat, and poet.
4. Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), a German philosopher and historian.
5. Oswald Mosley (1896-1980), a British politician and leader of the British Union of Fascists.
The name Oswald has remained in use throughout the centuries, although its popularity has waxed and waned in different regions and time periods. It has been particularly common in English-speaking countries, as well as in parts of Germany and Austria.
People
Oswald + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Oswald as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Oswald: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Oswald?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,948 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Oswald going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 175,952 US residents.
Is Oswald a common name?
We classify Oswald as "Rare". It ranks above 93.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,339 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Oswald most popular?
The single biggest year for Oswald was 1916, when 107 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Oswald is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Oswald in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,809 people with the name Oswald, or 0.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,900 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Oswald in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Oswald?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Oswald appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,810 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Oswald?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Oswald is Black at 42.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (28.7%) and White (22.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Oswald most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Oswald in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.1% (1,182 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Oswald in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Oswald a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Oswald in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Oswald still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Oswald in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Oswald can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Oswald?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.