Otto is a masculine

German given name Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (''Vorname'', plural ''Vornamen'') and a surname (''Nachname, Familienname''). The ''Vorname'' is usually gender-specific. A name is usually cited in the " Western orde ...

and a surname. It originates as an

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''

Udo Udo is a masculine given name. It may refer to: People Medieval era *Udo of Neustria, 9th century nobleman * Udo (Obotrite prince) (died 1028) * Udo (archbishop of Trier) (c. 1030 – 1078) * Lothair Udo II, Margrave of the Nordmark (c. 1025 � ...

'') of

Germanic names Germanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements, by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from ', for "noble", and ', for "counsel". However, there are also ...

beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded from the 7th century ( Odo, son of Uro, courtier of

Sigebert III Sigebert III ( 630–656) was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian '' roi fainéant'' —do-nothing king—, in effect the mayor of the palace ruling the kingdom throug ...

). It was the name of three 10th-century German kings, the first of whom was

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

, the first Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the

Ottonian The Ottonian dynasty (german: Ottonen) was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman Emperors named Otto, especially its first Emperor Otto I. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the ...

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 Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

form was '' auð-''. The given name Otis arose from an English surname, which was in turn derived from ''Ode'', a variant form of ''Odo, Otto''. Due to Otto von Bismarck, the given name ''Otto'' was strongly associated with the German Empire in the later 19th century. It was comparatively frequently given in the United States (presumably in German American 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 Anti-German sentiment (also known as Anti-Germanism, Germanophobia or Teutophobia) is opposition to or fear of Germany, its inhabitants, its culture, or its language. Its opposite is Germanophilia. Anti-German sentiment largely began wit ...

leading up to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; 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) Otto (died 643 or 644) was the mayor of the palace of Austrasia briefly in the mid-seventh century. Otto was the son of a '' domesticus'' named Uro who served in the court of Dagobert I. Otto was raised with Dagobert's son Sigebert III and subsequ ...

(died 643 or 644), mayor of the palace of Austrasia briefly in the mid-7th century * Otto I, Duke of Saxony (851–912) * the

dynasty ** Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912–973) ** Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (955–983) **

Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...

(980–1002) *

Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218. Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 11 ...

(1175/1176–1218) * Otto of Bamberg (1060/1061–1139), bishop and Catholic saint *

Otto of Freising Otto of Freising ( la, Otto Frisingensis; c. 1114 – 22 September 1158) was a German churchman of the Cistercian order and chronicled at least two texts which carries valuable information on the political history of his own time. He was Otto I ...

(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 * Otto von Bismarck (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