Ottie
Feminine · “Wealth”
Ottie is given to both — 1,275 girls and 609 boys since 1880. See Ottie as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Ottie is a pet form with four possible parents, and the most interesting of them is a surname that became a machine. The name Otis was ordinary and unremarkable until a mechanic in New York invented something that made tall buildings possible, and after that it was on a brass plate in every lobby in America.
How old is the name Ottie?
Ottie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ottie alive today was born around 1916, making them about 109 years old. About 100 people named Ottie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ottie most popular?
Ottie peaked in 1891, reaching #572 nationally. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aud to Ottie
The story of Ottie
Elisha Otis did not invent the elevator, which is ancient. He invented the thing that stops one falling. At a New York exhibition in the eighteen-fifties he had himself hoisted on an open platform, ordered the rope cut with an axe, and stayed where he was, held by a spring-loaded catch that gripped the guide rails the instant the tension went. That demonstration is the reason buildings are tall. Before it, nobody would rent an upper floor and nobody would build above five or six stories; afterwards the top of a building became the expensive part, and the whole shape of the American city followed. The surname went onto the plate in the lift, and from there back into use as a given name.
Meaningscholars disagree
Wealth, or eighth
It depends which full name is behind it. Otto, Otis and Ottilie all descend from a Germanic word for inherited property; Octavia is Latin and means the eighth, from a Roman habit of numbering children. A pet form removes exactly the material that would let you tell which, and the record does not keep a note of what the family had in mind.
How the name formed
- aud
- Otto
- Ottie
Related forms: Otto · Ottavia · Odette
Pronouncing Ottie
OT-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front and a short first vowel, which is what the doubled t is there to guarantee. Ottie and Otty are said identically; the ending is a visual choice.
Nicknames for Ottie
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
- 192135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #572reached in 1891
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%5 in 2024, from 6
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.
Ottie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Otto in German — related form
- Ottavia in Italian — related form
- Odette in French — related form
Otties among us
people named Ottie 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
Ottie 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
- Short, warm and impossible to mispronounce, with nothing a small child will struggle with.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms across several generations.
- Several long formal names sit behind it, so a bearer can adopt one later if she wants.
- The record carries this spelling for boys and girls both, so it signals nothing on a form.
- A pet form on a certificate leaves nothing more formal underneath unless one is written there too.
- It is strongly dated to the end of the nineteenth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Ottie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Otties are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Ottie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ottie in 2025?
- Ottie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ottie with classmates?
- Ottie 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 Ottie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ottie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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