Omar

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Ömer in TR Türkiye, DE Germany, Умар in RU Russia, KG Kyrgyzstan, Omari in TZ Tanzania, KE Kenya and Omer in FR France, IN India.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Omar is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name1.2M records spelled Omar111 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Bangladesh, Algeria, Venezuela

  Languages: English, German, Danish

  Also written O'Mar, Omàr, Ömar, Ómar, Òmar

• Malay given name265K records spelled Omar39 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, United States, Philippines

  Languages: Malay, Indonesian

  Also written Ömar, Õmar, Ömär, Õmãř, Ömår

• a separate given name92K records spelled Omar11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, Morocco, Ecuador

  Also written Ômar, Ómar, Ömär, Ömar, ͑omar

• Kazakh given name53K records spelled Omar77 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Kazakhstan, Türkiye, Syria, Iraq

  Languages: Kazakh, Turkish, Azerbaijani

  Also written Омар, Ömar, Omàr, Õmãr, Ömàr

• Finnish given name14K records spelled Omar56 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Estonia, Peru

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Õmar, Õmär, Õmâr, Ömar, Õmäŕ

87 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Omar is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Spanish, Arabic 'the builder', from amara 'to build, inhabit, populate'; borne by the second caliph.

  as a name·Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios

• Eloquent or speaker (derived from the Hebrew root 'amar', meaning 'to speak').

  as a name·Biblical Names Compiled Database

• In Arabic, West African and Somali Muslim name: 'most high'; associated with a follower of the Prophet Muhammad.

  as a name·African Names

• In Arabic, Variant of ʿUmar, a major early Islamic name.

  as a name·African Muslim Names

• Biblical name (apparently meaning ‘talkative’ in Hebrew) borne by a character mentioned in a genealogy (Genesis 36:11). It has been occasionally used from Puritan times down to the present day in America. More often, however, it is of Arabic origin, as in the case of the film actor and international bridge player Omar Sharif (b. 1926 in Egypt).

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Omar Metwallyb. 1USAmerican actor
• Umar ibn Abd al-Azizb. 681SAnot in their usual nameUmayyad caliph from 717 to 720
• Omar Khayyamb. 1048IRPersian mathematician and poet (1048–1131)
• Omar Ali Saifuddien IIIb. 1914BNSultan of Brunei (1914-1986)
• Omar Sharifb. 1932EGEgyptian actor (1932–2015)
• Omar Bongob. 1935GAGabonese politician (1935–2009)
• Omar al-Bashirb. 1944SDPresident of Sudan from 1989 to 2019
• Omar M. Yaghib. 1965JOAmerican chemist of Arabic descent (born 1965)
• Umaro Sissoco Embalób. 1972GWnot in their usual namePresident of Guinea-Bissau from 2020 to 2025
• Don Omarb. 1978USPuerto Rican rapper and actor (born 1978)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,546 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Omar?

We estimate roughly 636 thousand people bear Omar (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Omar have the most bearers?

Omar is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled omar.

Where is Omar most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Omar is densest in Türkiye — about 1 in 194 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.

How common is Omar compared with other names?

In Argentina, Omar is the 74th most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Omar a male or female name?

Omar is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Omar mean?

Recorded meaning: A biblical name of Hebrew origin meaning 'eloquent' or 'gifted speaker'.