Osman

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Osama in EG Egypt, SY Syria, US United States and 11 more, Othman in MY Malaysia, FR France, MA Morocco and 2 more, Usama in PK Pakistan, NG Nigeria and Осман in KZ Kazakhstan, RU Russia.

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 9 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◐

Osman is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name304K records spelled Osman166 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Nigeria, Bangladesh, United States, India

  Languages: English, German, Danish

  Also written Usman, Oesman, Oşman, O'Sman, Uşman

• Malay given name170K records spelled Osman8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Türkiye, Indonesia, India

  Languages: Malay, Indonesian

  Also written Oşman, O'Sman, Òşmān, Ôşmãn, Ósmáñ

• Spanish given name128K records spelled Osman26 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Honduras, Venezuela, United States

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written O'Sman, Osmán, Oșman, Őșmăñ, Ő'Šmäň

• Bangla given name97K records spelled Osman20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Bangladesh, India, Türkiye, United States

  Languages: Bangla, Hindi, Assamese

  Also written ওসমান, Ossman, Oshman, Osmaan, Osmanu

• Hebrew given name47K records spelled Osman14 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, Israel, United States, Malaysia

  Also written עוסמאן, אוסמן, עות'מאן, Usman, Othman

• a separate given name45K records spelled Osman4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Türkiye, Ethiopia

  Also written Osmân, Osmán, Osmān

• Russian given name43K records spelled Osman53 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Ukraine

  Languages: Russian, Bulgarian, Uzbek

  Also written Осман, Усман, Асман, Usman, Осьман

• French given name37K records spelled Osman24 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Türkiye, Belgium, United States

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Osmän, Ôsmàn, Ósmaň, Ŏsmañ, Osmán

57 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●

Osman 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.

• No special meaning, comes from Turkish Sultanic

  as a name·A Handbook of African Names

• In Turkish, a male given name which refers to Osman Bey, the founder of the Ottoman Empire

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Turkish, 1. Bir tür kuş veya ejderha.2. Hz. Muhammet'in damadı, üçüncü halife. 3. Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun kurucusu ve ilk hükümdarı.

  as a word·TDK Kişi Adları Sözlüğü (official Turkish given-name dictionary)

• In Swedish, Osman är en form av det arabiska Othman som betyder ’trapp’ (fågelarten). Osman i (1258–1323/24) grundade det osmanska riket i Anatolien i nuvarande Turkiet.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In English, Turkish emir, founder of Ottoman

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper 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●

XK ASK Kosovo — Kërko Emrin (Name Search) — 145 years between 1864–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Osman Ib. 1258TRfounder of the Ottoman Empire (died 1323/4)
• Osman IIb. 1604TR16th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1618–1622)
• Osman IIIb. 1699TR25th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1754–1757)
• Usman dan Fodiob. 1754NGnot in their usual namefounder of the Sokoto Caliphate
• Osman Pazvantoğlub. 1758BGOttoman rebel
• Osman Nuri Pashab. 1832TROttoman general (1832–1900)
• Osman Hamdi Beyb. 1842TROttoman statesman, academic and artist (1842-1910)
• Asaf Jah VII of Hyderabadb. 1886INnot in their usual nameLast Monarch of the Kingdom of Hyderabad (1886-1967)
• Osman Kavalab. 1957FRTurkish businessperson and philanthropist (born 1957)
• Osman Bukarib. 1998GHGhanaian association football player

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 · 1,021 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Osman?

We estimate roughly 338 thousand people bear Osman (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Osman have the most bearers?

We estimate about 310 thousand people bear Osman in Türkiye, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled osman.

Where is Osman most common?

Osman is densest in Türkiye, where the national register counts about 1 in 264 people carrying it.

How common is Osman compared with other names?

In Türkiye, Osman is the 12th most common given name of 294,597 given names recorded there.

Is Osman a male or female name?

Osman 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 Osman mean?

Recorded meaning: from the name stem Ans-/Os-/Osch- + -mann