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Oscar

Germanic in origin, meaning "god's spear," or by an older reading "deer friend." Given only to boys, it climbed through the 2010s and is fading again: a few thousand Poles carry it, so most here have never met one.

Oscar Pronunciation

Oscar is pronounced OS-tsahr (/ˈɔst͡sar/).

Alive in 2025
4,167
Newborns 2025
32
National rank
#526

What Oscar means

Where Oscar comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Oscar comes from Germanic roots, joining os, meaning god, to gar, a spear. The literal sense is god's spear. A second thread runs through Old Irish, where os meant deer, which gives the reading deer friend, and both senses have followed the name for a long time.

The name traveled north by an odd route. James Macpherson's Ossian poems of the 1760s gave Europe a hero called Oscar, and Napoleon, who admired those poems, chose the name for his godson. That godson grew up to become Oscar I, king of Sweden and Norway from 1844. One choice planted Oscar firmly in Scandinavia, where it stays common. In English it settled just as deeply, carried by writers and by everyday registers alike.

Read down a Polish class list beside Oskar, and the spelling changes while the spear holds. God's spear, or else the friend of deer.

How many people are named Oscar

1 in 5123 men in Poland is named Oscar. 4,167 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #526 among male names.

People with the name Oscar 2019 → 2025
4,167 +1,308 since 2019
2020 2,990 +131
2021 3,126 +136
2022 3,301 +175
2023 3,515 +214
2024 3,822 +307
2025 4,167 +345

Oscar's popularity over time

32 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #433 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2001.

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32 newborns with the name Oscar in 2025
national rank #433 that year

Where Oscar is most popular

Oscar is most popular in Subcarpathian, 88% above the national average (24 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Podlaskie (+72%) and Warmian-Masurian (+58%). It is least common in Opole and Pomeranian, 59% and 55% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Oscar as a middle name

Oscar is a first name for 4,167 men in Poland and a middle name for another 584, an 88/12 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 296th, between Stanislaw (586) and Narcyz (578).

As a first name
4,167
As a middle name
584
first name 88% middle name 12%
Middle-name ranking men

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Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.

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