The surname Oscar
An Irish patronymic surname, carried by 1,781 people in the United States.
Pronounced /ˈɑs.kɚ/ 2 syllables Soundex O260 Also a first name
Origin
Irish origin
Exact origin uncertain. Resuscitated by James Mcpherson in The Works of Ossian (1765). Napoleon, an admirer of the Ossianic poems, chose it for his godson Oscar Bernadotte, who became a king of Sweden. The modern given name is a conflation of two unrelated names: first, Middle Irish Oscar (the name of Fionn Mac Cumhaill's grandson in Irish mythology), from Middle Irish os (“deer”) + cara (“friend”); and second, Old English Ōscār, Ōsgār (personal name, literally “spear of the gods/spear of God”), from Old English ōs (“god”) and gār (“spear”) (see Oswald). Compare German Ansgar (personal name), Danish Asker, Asger (personal name), Norwegian Asgeir (personal name), Icelandic Ásgeir (personal name). (Academy Award): Disputed. Said to have been named by actress Bette Davis after her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, or by secretary Margaret Herrick after her cousin Oscar Pierce.
Oscar is a patronymic surname: formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.
One of 880 Irish surnames on this site.
Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How common it is
2010 US Census
There were 1,781 people named Oscar in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 173,355 Americans. That is up 26% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,417.
Who is named Oscar
Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census
43% of people named Oscar identified as Black (not Hispanic), 29% as white (not Hispanic) and 18% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
- Black (not Hispanic) 43%
- White (not Hispanic) 29%
- Hispanic or Latino (any race) 18%
- American Indian and Alaska Native 5.7%
- Two or more races 2.7%
- Asian and Pacific Islander 1.3%
Spellings and sound-alikes
Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling
Surnames that sound like Oscar
Oscar has the Soundex code O260, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code O260.
Other Irish surnames
Questions
- Where does the surname Oscar come from?
- Exact origin uncertain. Resuscitated by James Mcpherson in The Works of Ossian (1765). Napoleon, an admirer of the Ossianic poems, chose it for his godson Oscar Bernadotte, who became a king of Sweden. The modern given name is a conflation of two unrelated names: first, Middle Irish Oscar (the…
- How common is the surname Oscar?
- 1,781 people in the United States had the surname Oscar in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 173,355 Americans. It ranked 16,214th of 162,253 surnames.
- What ethnicity is the surname Oscar?
- In the 2010 Census, 43% of people named Oscar identified as Black (not Hispanic), and 29% as white (not Hispanic).
- How do you pronounce Oscar?
- Oscar is /ˈɑs.kɚ/, 2 syllables.
- What type of surname is Oscar?
- Oscar is a patronymic surname, formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.
- Is the surname Oscar getting more or less common?
- More common. 1,417 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,781 in 2010, up 26%.
- Is Oscar also a first name?
- Yes. Oscar is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.