Odin
Masculine · Proto-Germanic roots · “From Old Norse óðr”
Odin is the name of the chief god of the Norse myths, written down in Iceland in the thirteenth century and carried in Scandinavian speech for far longer than that. It is four letters and two clean syllables, opening on a long O and closing softly — a short name with a very long memory behind it. The same god's name in Old English, Wōden, is still with English speakers every week in the word Wednesday.
How old is the name Odin?
Odin first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Odin is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 13,000 people named Odin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Odin most popular?
Odin peaked in 2021, reaching #327 nationally. Today it ranks #501, 174 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Odin appears on these lists:
- Hero and god names for boys
- Scandinavian names, cool by design
- Norse mythology names
- Names ending in -in
- all guides
Works in Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From *Wōðanaz (Proto-Germanic) to Odin
The story of Odin
The name comes from Old Norse Óðinn, and behind that from the reconstructed Germanic *Wōðanaz, a figure worshipped across the Germanic-speaking world long before anyone wrote him down. He reaches us mainly through the Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, compiled in Iceland in the thirteenth century, where he appears as god of poetry, wisdom, war and the dead. The same name went south as Wuotan in Old High German and west as Wōden in Old English, where it survives fossilized in Wednesday. As a name for actual children rather than a god, Odin is a modern revival — it turns up in American records from the late nineteenth century, in step with Scandinavian settlement, and has had its real wave only in the last couple of decades.
Meaning
From Old Norse óðr — 'inspiration, poetry, frenzy, fury'
Óðinn is built on óðr, a word covering poetic inspiration and ecstatic rage alike, with the Norse suffix -inn. The double sense is in the language itself, not a later gloss.
How the name formed
- *WōðanazProto-Germanic
- WōdenOld English
- ÓðinnOld Norse
- Odin
Related forms: Óðinn · Odin · Odin · Wotan · Wodan · Wōden
Pronouncing Odin
OH-din
Standard American English gives it two syllables with the stress up front. In Icelandic, Óðinn has a soft 'th' in the middle — closer to OH-thin — which is worth knowing but not what you will hear at school.
Nicknames for Odin
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 20221,023 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #327reached in 2021
- Change vs 2023
- −33.1%604 in 2025, from 903
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Odin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Óðinn in Icelandic — same name
- Odin in Norwegian — same name
- Odin in Danish — same name
- Wotan in German — related form
- Wodan in Dutch — related form
- Wōden in Old English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Minnesota.
Odins among us
people named Odin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,828 born in 2025 was named Odin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Vance test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Odin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Vance climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Vance's path sketches the road Odin is walking now.
Odin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Odin is headed
Odin is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Odin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Odin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds, and short enough that a child can write it early.
- Recognized on sight across the English-speaking world and all of Scandinavia, in the same spelling.
- A documented record stretching back to medieval Icelandic manuscripts and, before that, to Germanic religion.
- Familiar without crowding: a child named Odin is unlikely to share a classroom with another.
- The name does not travel alone. Every introduction carries the god with it, and since the Marvel films most Americans meet Odin as a character first — expect comments, some of them the same comment, for years.
- The myth itself is heavy in places: Odin is a god of war and of the dead as much as of poetry. That reads as depth to some families and as a lot to hand a newborn for others.
- Its wave among American children is very recent, so it currently sounds contemporary rather than inherited, and most people who share the name are young.
- Odie, the natural short form, is also the name of the dog in the Garfield comics — easy to shrug off, but likely to come up on a playground.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Odin
Masculine · Proto-Germanic roots · #501 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Odins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,000 people named Odin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Odin in 2025?
- Odin ranks #501 among US boy names in 2025, with 604 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Odin?
- About 1 in every 2,828 US boys born in 2025 was named Odin — 604 in all.
- Will my child share the name Odin with classmates?
- Odin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Odin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Damon#501 · Royce#499 · Zaire#503 · Brantley#499 · Ronin#504 · Jasiah#498 · Alessandro#497 · Pierce#505
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Odin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Odin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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