Ozzy
A diminutive form of the name Ozias which means "God's strength".
Name Census estimates that about 3,876 living Americans carry the first name Ozzy. It is a predominantly male name (92.8% of registrations). The average person named Ozzy today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ozzy births was 2023 (600 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ozzy. 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 Ozzy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ozzy is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.9K
~ 1 in 88,430 Americans
Peak year
2023
600 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#602
Tracked since 1982
Census
Ozzy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,761 people with the first name Ozzy, which placed it at #8,273 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
#8,273
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,761 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ozzy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ozzy is White at 53.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.0%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Ozzy 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 Ozzy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.5% · 943
- Hispanic or Latino36.0% · 634
- Two or more races4.8% · 85
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 35
- Black or African American1.9% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 30
Gender
Gender distribution for Ozzy
Ozzy leans heavily male at 92.8% of total registrations, but 283 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ozzy as a male name
- Ranked #602 in 2024
- 472 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (529 births)
Ozzy as a female name
- Ranked #2,807 in 2024
- 60 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (71 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ozzy leans strongly male. 1,705 people counted with this name were male (97.0%), compared with 53 female bearers (3.0%).
Popularity
Ozzy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ozzy from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 2,276 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ozzy 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 Ozzy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ozzys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Ozzy, while West Virginia, South Dakota, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ozzy
The name Ozzy is derived from the Old English name Osric, which means "divine ruler" or "ruler of the gods." This name has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon period, dating back to the 5th to 11th centuries AD. The name is a combination of the Old English words "os," meaning "god," and "ric," meaning "ruler" or "power."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Osric can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record dating back to the 9th century. In this text, Osric is mentioned as a king of Northumbria who ruled in the early 7th century.
Over time, the name Osric evolved into various spellings and variations, including Osric, Osrick, and eventually, Ozzy. The shortened form, Ozzy, became more popular in the 20th century and is often associated with the famous British rock musician Ozzy Osbourne, whose real name is John Michael Osbourne.
Another notable individual named Ozzy was Ozzy Nelson, an American actor, and television personality born in 1906. He starred in the popular sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" alongside his wife, Harriet, and their sons, David and Ricky Nelson.
In the realm of literature, Ozzy is the name of a character in the novel "The Glorious Heresies" by Lisa McInerney, which won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2016.
Another historical figure with the name Ozzy was Osric Chau, a Canadian actor born in 1986, known for his roles in various TV shows and films, including "Supernatural" and "The 100."
Lastly, Ozzy Smith, born in 1954, was a former professional baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals, renowned for his exceptional defensive skills and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ozzy
People
Ozzy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ozzy 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
Ozzy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ozzy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,876 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ozzy 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 88,430 US residents.
Is Ozzy a common name?
We classify Ozzy as "Rare". It ranks above 95.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,911 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ozzy most popular?
The single biggest year for Ozzy was 2023, when 600 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ozzy is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ozzy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,761 people with the name Ozzy, or 0.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,273 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 Ozzy 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 Ozzy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ozzy leans strongly male. 1,705 people counted with this name were male (97.0%), compared with 53 female bearers (3.0%). 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 Ozzy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ozzy is White at 53.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (36.0%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Ozzy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ozzy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.5% (943 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 Ozzy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ozzy a male name?
Yes, 92.8% of people registered as Ozzy 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 Ozzy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ozzy 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 Ozzy 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 are named Ozzy?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.