Oswald

English

"divine power"

Oswald Origin and Meaning

The name Oswald is a boy's name of English origin meaning "divine power".

Despite the success of so many O-starting boys names--Oliver, Owen, Otis, Oscar--Oswald has not yet shown any signs of resurrection, though he does have the animating nicknames Ozzie/Ozzy and Oz. The name has some literary cred--in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's King Lear and a novel by H. G.Wells--and there was early cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Oswald Rank in US Top 1000

# 932 in the US

Oswald Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 1039 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Oswald

• 1039 Nameberry 2025

20 Names Similar to Oswald

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Oswald.

• Clement
• Claude
• Cecil
• Sylvester
• Wilfred
• Archibald
• Barnaby
• Rufus
• Clarence
• Humphrey
• Seymour
• Fergus
• Virgil
• Wilbur
• Angus
• Lionel
• Pascal
• Chester
• Gilbert
• Barnabas

Famous People Named Oswald

• Saint Oswald King of Northumbria
• Oswald Ernald Mosley 6th Baronet of Ancoats, founder of the British Union of Fascists
• Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler German historian
• Oswald Chambers Scottish evangelist and teacher
• Oswald Boelcke German WWI flying ace
• Oswald of Worcester Archbishop of York
• Oswald Veblen American mathematician
• Oswald Theodore Avery Jr. Canadian,American physician and DNA researcher
• Lee Harvey Oswald assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy

The name Oswald in Pop Culture

• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit early Disney character
• Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot aka The Penguin villain in the Batman series
• Oswald Hamley character in "Wives and Daughters" by Elizabeth Gaskell
• Oswald Sydenham character in "Joan and Peter" by H.G. Wells
• Oswald Lee Harvey character on "The Drew Carey Show"
• Oswald Bastable character in novels by E. Nesbit
• Oswald Goneril's steward in Shakespeare's King Lear
• "Oswald " animated series about an octopus
• Oswald Alving character in Henrik Ibsen’s 1881 play “Ghosts”
• Oswald Standish Lord Chiltern, character in Anthony Trollope's "Palliser" series
• Oswald "Otto" Rocket character from animated series "Rocket Power"
• Oswald character from TV series "Warehouse 13"
• Oswald character in the video game "Odin Sphere" (2007)
• Oswald Forster main character in G. A. Henty's "Both Sides the Border"
• Oswald Mandus main character in video game ''Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs''
• Oswin Oswald character on TV's "Doctor Who"
• Clara Oswald character on TV's "Doctor Who"

International Variations of the name Oswald

• Osvald Scandinavian
• Osvaldo Spanish
• Osvaldo Portuguese