Otto is a masculine German given name and a

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded from the 7th century ( Odo, son of Uro, courtier of Sigebert III). It was the name of three 10th-century German kings, the first of whom was Otto I the Great, the first

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...

, founder of the Ottonian dynasty. The Gothic form of the prefix was ''auda-'' (as in e.g. '' Audaþius''), the Anglo-Saxon form was ''ead-'' (as in e.g. '' Eadmund''), and the Old Norse form was '' auð-''. The given name

Otis Otis may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Otis (Superman), in the films ''Superman'' and ''Superman II'' and related DC Comics media ** Otis Graves, in the TV series ''Supergirl'' * Otis (The Walking Dead), Otis (''The Walking Dead' ...

arose from an English surname, which was in turn derived from ''Ode'', a variant form of ''Odo, Otto''. Due to

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

, the given name ''Otto'' was strongly associated with the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

in the later 19th century. It was comparatively frequently given in the United States (presumably in

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

families) during the 1880s to 1890s, remaining in the top 100 most popular masculine given names in the US throughout 1880–1898, but its popularity decreased significantly after 1900 with increasing anti-German sentiment leading up to World War I; it fell below rank 200 in 1919, below rank 500 in 1947, and below rank 1000 in 1975; it re-entered the top-1000 most popular given names in the US only in the 2010s, ranking 696th as of 2013.US statistics (behindthename.com)

People called Otto

Medieval

* Otto (mayor of the palace) (died 643 or 644), mayor of the palace of

Austrasia Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the F ...

briefly in the mid-7th century *

Otto I, Duke of Saxony Otto ( – 30 November 912), called the Illustrious (german: Otto der Erlauchte) by later authors, a member of the Ottonian dynasty, was Duke of Saxony from 880 to his death. Family Otto was a younger son of the Saxon count Liudolf (d. 866), ...

(851–912) * the Ottonian dynasty **

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Francia, East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the olde ...

(912–973) **

Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy ...

(955–983) ** Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (980–1002) * Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1175/1176–1218) * Otto of Bamberg (1060/1061–1139), bishop and Catholic saint * Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158), bishop and chronicler

Modern

* Otto of Greece (1815–1867), King of Greece * Otto Barić (1933–2020), Croatian footballer and manager * Otto, King of Bavaria (1848–1916), King of Bavaria * Otto Adler, president of the Jewish Association of Romania * Otto T. Bannard (1854–1929), American attorney, businessman and philanthropist * Otto Carius (1922–2015), German tank ace and pharmacist * Otto Diels (1876–1954), German chemist * Otto Dix (1891–1969), German painter and printmaker * Otto Dowling (1881–1946), 25th Governor of American Samoa * Otto Farrant, British actor * Otto Fischer (footballer) (1901–1941), Austrian (soccer) football player and coach * Otto Förschner (1902–1946), German Nazi SS concentration camp commandant; executed for war crimes * Otto Frank (1889–1980), German-born Swiss business man, father of Anne Frank * Otto Freundlich (1878–1943), German painter and sculptor * Otto Graham (1921–2003), professional American football and basketball player * Otto Graf Lambsdorff (1926–2009), German politician * Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964), East German politician * Otto Hahn (1879–1968), German chemist * Otto Herschmann (1877–1942), Austrian Olympic fencing and swimming medalist * Otto Knows (born 1989), Swedish DJ * Otto Klemperer (1885–1973), German-born conductor and composer * Otto Kraushaar(1901–1989), American academic * Otto Kretschmer (1912–1998), German World War II U-boat captain * Otto Lietchen (1887–1977), American politician * Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896), German aviator * Otto Ludvig Beckman (1856–1909), Swedish Coastal Artillery major general * Otto Lybeck (1871–1947), Swedish Navy admiral * Otto Mahler (1873–1895), Bohemian-Austrian composer, brother of Gustav Mahler, Gustav * Otto Moll, (1915–1946), German SS-Hauptscharführer at Auschwitz concentration camp; executed for war crimes * Otto Ohlendorf (1907–1951), German SS general and Holocaust perpetrator; executed for war crimes * Otto & George, Otto Peterson (1960–2014), American comedian (Otto & George ventriloquism act) * Otto Porter (born 1993), American professional basketball player for the Washington Wizards, NBA * Otto Planetta (1899–1934), Austrian Nazi Waffen-SS who murdered Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss * Otto Plath (1885–1940), father of American poet Sylvia Plath, and entomologist * Otto Pohla (1899–1941), Estonian wrestler * Otto Preminger (1905–1986), Austro–Hungarian-born American film director * Otto Rehhagel (born 1938), German football coach * Otto Sigfrid Reuter (1876–1945), German ''völkisch''-religious ideologue * Otto Sauter-Sarto (1884–1958), German actor * Otto Scheff (1889–1956), Austrian Olympic swimming champion * Otto Schily (born 1932), German politician * Otto Schmitt (field hockey) (born 1965), Argentine field hockey goalkeeper * Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975), Austrian-born Waffen-SS commando * Otto Sohn-Rethel (1877–1949), German painter and Lepidopterology, lepidopterist. * Otto Soglow (1900–1975), American cartoonist * Otto Strandman (1875–1941), Estonian politician, former Prime Minister * Otto Tief (1889–1976), Estonian politician, military commander, lawyer, former Prime Minister * Otto van Verschuer (1927–2014), Dutch politician * Otto Christian Archibald von Bismarck (1897–1975), German politician and diplomat *

(1815–1898), Prussian/German statesman * Otto von Habsburg (1912–2011), head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine from 1922 to 2007 * Otto Waalkes (born 1948), German comedian and actor * Otto Wagner (1841–1918), Austrian architect * Otto Wahle (1879–1963), Austrian-born American Olympic swimming medalist and Hall of Fame * Otto F. Walter (1928–1994), Swiss journalist, author and publisher * Otto Warmbier (1994–2017), American student imprisoned in North Korea * Otto Weininger (1880–1903), Christian Austrian philosopher * Otto (singer), Otto Maximiliano Pereira de Cordeiro Ferreira (born 1968), Brazilian singer-songwriter, drummer and TV presenter * Otto Wichterle (1913–1998), Czech chemist, best known for his invention of modern soft contact lenses * Otto S. Wolfbeis (born 1947), professor of analytical chemistry and interface chemistry at the University of Regensburg * Otto Hindrich (2002-), Romanian Footballer

Fictional entities

* List of Sons of Anarchy characters#Otto Delaney, Otto Delaney, a character in the drama ''Sons of Anarchy'' on the American TV network FX, played by series creator Kurt Sutter * Herr Otto Flick, a character in the BBC sitcom '''Allo 'Allo!'' * Otto Hightower, Hand of the King to Viserys Targaryen in HBO series House of the Dragon * Otto Maddox, the main character in the 1984 film ''Repo Man (film), Repo Man'' * Otto Malpense, the main character in the ''H.I.V.E.'' series by Mark Walden * Otto Mann, character on the animated TV series ''The Simpsons'' * Otto Octavius, fictional Marvel Comics supervillain otherwise known as Doctor Octopus. One of Spider-Man's nemeses * Fear the Walking Dead#CITEREFFaherty2016, Jake, Jeremiah, and Troy Otto, character on ''Fear the Walking Dead'', Season 3 * Oswald "Otto" Rocket, the main character of Nickelodeon's ''Rocket Power'' * Otto Osworth, the main character of Cartoon Network's ''Time Squad'' * Otto Suwen, a character in the anime/manga series ''Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World'' * Otto, the inflatable "auto" pilot in the 1980 comedy film ''Airplane!'' * Otto West, the main antagonist in the 1988 heist comedy ''A Fish Called Wanda'' * Otto, one of the main Minions (Despicable Me), Minions in the 2022 computer-animated comedy film ''Minions: The Rise of Gru'' * Ottoriki, one of the main characters in American animated children's television series Kikoriki, GoGoRiki.

Animals

* Otto (dog) (1989–2010), world's oldest dog * ''Otocinclus'', Sucking catfish, often known as 'Otto'

References

External links

AUDName List: Auð-
(nordicnames.de) {{Given name Danish masculine given names Dutch masculine given names English masculine given names Estonian masculine given names Finnish masculine given names German masculine given names Icelandic masculine given names Masculine given names Norwegian masculine given names Swedish masculine given names