Othello
A masculine Italian name meaning "the wealth of the Lord".
Name Census estimates that about 434 living Americans carry the first name Othello. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Othello today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Othello births was 1919 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Othello. 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 Othello with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
434
~ 1 in 789,757 Americans
Peak year
1919
24 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,587
Tracked since 1905
Census
Othello in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 508 people with the first name Othello, which placed it at #20,360 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
#20,360
National first-name rank
People counted
508
508 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Othello
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Othello is Black at 68.9%. The next largest groups are White (9.8%) and Two or More Races (8.3%). 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 Othello 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 Othello at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.9% · 350
- White9.8% · 50
- Two or more races8.3% · 42
- Hispanic or Latino6.7% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Othello
Othello leans heavily male at 85.4% of total registrations, but 116 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Othello as a male name
- Ranked #5,813 in 2024
- 16 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1923 (16 births)
Othello as a female name
- Ranked #3,587 in 1930
- 8 female births in 1930
- Peak: 1919 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Othello leans strongly male. 477 people counted with this name were male (93.3%), compared with 34 female bearers (6.7%).
Popularity
Othello: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Othello from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 138 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Othello remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Othello 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 Othello during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Othellos live
Origin
Meaning and history of Othello
The name Othello is believed to have originated from the Greek word "Othellos," which means "stranger" or "foreigner." It is thought to have been derived from the Greek word "othelos," meaning "other" or "different." The name gained popularity in the 16th century, particularly after the publication of William Shakespeare's famous tragedy, "Othello, the Moor of Venice," in 1603.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Othello can be found in the play itself, where the protagonist, Othello, is a Moorish general in the Venetian army. The play explores themes of jealousy, betrayal, and racial prejudice, and Othello's name serves as a reminder of his status as an outsider in Venetian society.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Othello. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Othello, a Frankish nobleman who lived in the 8th century and was a vassal of Charlemagne. Another notable Othello was Othello da Carpi, an Italian painter who lived in the 16th century and was known for his religious works.
In the 19th century, Othello Tomicki was a Polish nobleman and diplomat who served as the Grand Chancellor of Poland from 1532 to 1536. Othello Lovering was an American abolitionist and writer who lived in the mid-19th century and was known for his anti-slavery works.
More recently, Othello Graham was an American blues singer and guitarist who was active in the 1920s and 1930s, and was known for his influential slide guitar playing style. Othello Quintana was a Mexican-American artist and sculptor who lived in the 20th century and was known for his abstract works.
While the name Othello is not as common today as it once was, it continues to hold a significant place in literature and history, serving as a reminder of the enduring power of Shakespeare's masterpiece and the complex themes it explores.
People
Othello + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Othello 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
Othello: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Othello?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 434 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Othello 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 789,757 US residents.
Is Othello a common name?
We classify Othello as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 795 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Othello most popular?
The single biggest year for Othello was 1919, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Othello is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Othello in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 508 people with the name Othello, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,360 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 Othello 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 Othello?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Othello leans strongly male. 477 people counted with this name were male (93.3%), compared with 34 female bearers (6.7%). 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 Othello?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Othello is Black at 68.9%. The next largest groups are White (9.8%) and Two or More Races (8.3%). 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 Othello most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Othello in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.9% (350 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 Othello in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Othello a male name?
Yes, 85.4% of people registered as Othello 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 Othello still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Othello 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 Othello 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 Americans are named Othello?
Want to know how many people have the name Othello? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.