Ofer
A Hebrew name that means a fawn, the young of a deer. Most Poles have never met one: fewer than 200 carry it, and nearly all of them are men.
Ofer Pronunciation
Ofer is pronounced O-fer (/ˈɔfɛr/).
What Ofer means
Where Ofer comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ofer comes from Hebrew, where עֹפֶר names a fawn, the young of a deer. The short meaning holds close to the word itself: a young deer, młody jeleń in Polish. This is one of the rare names whose origin and plain sense sit in the same place.
The word carries a biblical address. In the Song of Songs, the beloved is compared to a gazelle and to "ofer ha'ayalim," the young of the stags, an image of quickness and grace. Hebrew kept the word in ordinary speech, and modern Israeli parents took it up as a given name for boys.
Among Polish children the name is uncommon. It has no Polish name-day, so a boy called Ofer will not find himself on the calendar. On a school register he stands a little apart, a Hebrew fawn among the Jakubs and Kacpers.
The meaning stays literal. Ofer is a fawn, and the name has never had to mean more than that.
How many people are named Ofer
1 in 129371 men in Poland is named Ofer. 173 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2430 among male names.
Ofer as a middle name
Ofer is a first name for 173 men in Poland and a middle name for another 4, a 98/2 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 5666th, between Odinaka (4) and Oktaw (4).
-
#5664 Oded4
-
#5665 Odinaka4
-
#5666 Ofer4
-
#5667 Oktaw4
-
#5668 Okwuchukwu4