Otto
A Germanic name that carries the sense of wealth and good fortune. Most Poles have never met an Otto, yet it's slowly climbing: a handful of newborn boys get it each year, seven of them last year.
Otto Pronunciation
Otto is pronounced OT-to (/ˈɔttɔ/).
What Otto means
Where Otto comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Otto grew out of the Germanic element aud, which meant wealth and good fortune. Speakers of Old High German wore it down to ot or od, and the name marked a man as well provided for. To a Polish ear the sense arrives as bogaty, zamożny.
The name traveled with rulers. Otto I was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, and the throne kept the name for three more Ottos after him. A thousand years later Otto von Bismarck welded the German states into one empire. German and Scandinavian families held onto it while longer fashions came and went.
Otto stays short. Two syllables, no diminutive to soften it, the same read forward and backward. In a Polish class register it sits among the Antonis and Piotrs without asking for a nickname, and its old meaning holds: wealth, fortune.
When Otto celebrates name day
Otto appears 3 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 16 January.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Otto
1 in 49758 men in Poland is named Otto. 429 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1435 among male names.
Otto's popularity over time
7 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #830 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2013.
Where Otto is most popular
Otto is most popular in Silesian, 265% above the national average (5 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lublin (+224%) and Masovian (+182%).
Otto as a middle name
Otto is a first name for 429 men in Poland and a middle name for another 499, a 46/54 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 319th, between Heronim (502) and Prasad (498).
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#317 Angel505
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#318 Heronim502
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#319 Otto499
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#320 Prasad498
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#321 Donat495