Otelia
Feminine · “Wealth”
The mountain in Alsace that carries this saint's name has a wall around it that nobody can date. Ten kilometres of dry stone, blocks weighing a ton or more joined with wooden dovetails, running along the ridge with no mortar and no clear purpose, and every attempt to say who built it has been contested.
How old is the name Otelia?
Otelia was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Otelia alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 300 people named Otelia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Otelia most popular?
Otelia peaked in 1880, reaching #679 nationally. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Odila to Otelia
The story of Otelia
The wall is real, it is enormous, and the arguments about it have run for two hundred years. Radiocarbon dating of the wooden joints has produced results from the Celtic period and results from the early Middle Ages, and there is reasonable evidence that it was built in one era and repaired in another; whether it was a fortification, a boundary or a sanctuary enclosure is not agreed either. It surrounds a summit that has been a religious site continuously for as long as anybody can trace, first pagan and then Christian, and the convent on top of it was founded by the saint whose name this is. She is the patron of Alsace and of people with eye trouble, and the mountain gets pilgrims and archaeologists in about equal numbers.
Meaning
Wealth, inherited property
The Germanic element od, wealth in the sense of property that descends through a family, with a Latin feminine ending. It is the same element behind Otto and Odette. A name meaning inheritance was a plain statement about what a child stood to receive rather than a wish about her character.
How the name formed
- Odila
- Ottilia
- Otelia
Related forms: Ottilie · Odile · Ottilia
Pronouncing Otelia
oh-TEEL-yuh
Three or four syllables depending on whether the ia at the end is run together. German says OT-il-ee-uh with the weight at the front, which is a noticeably different name in speech.
Nicknames for Otelia
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 191933 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #679reached in 1880
- Change vs 1971
- +40.0%7 in 1982, from 5
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.
Otelia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ottilie in German — same name
- Odile in French — related form
- Ottilia in Italian — same name
Otelias among us
people named Otelia are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Otelia sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Tillie and Lia are two short forms a century apart in flavor.
- The name is at home in German, French and Italian with small changes.
- It is genuinely old material in a shape that is easy enough to say.
- Otilia, Ottilia and Otelia all circulate and will be confused.
- The syllable count is unsettled, so the name has to be introduced rather than written down.
- It is strongly dated to the nineteenth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Otelia
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Otelias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Otelia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Otelia in 2025?
- Otelia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Otelia with classmates?
- Otelia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More O names
The most-given names starting with O, all years combined.
Olivia#1 · Opal#423 · Olive#197 · Olga#3167 · Ollie#2276 · Ora#3712 · Ola#7885 · Ophelia#264
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Otelia? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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