Surnames as First Names: English Surnames — O

Omond

For a letter with fewer names under its belt, O has surprisingly rich pickings when it comes to surnames of Old English, Old Norse and Anglo-French origins, little used as first names:

• Oakden, Ogden — from Ogden in Lancashire. Old English ac “oak” + denu “valley.” Although Ogden is quite well-known from the poet (Frederic) Ogden Nash (1902-1971), it has only once made the top 1000, in 1907.
• Oaker — from ac “oak,” meaning “dweller at the oak.”
• Oakey, Okey — from ac “oak” + (ge)hæg “copse.”
• Oakham — from Oakham, Rutland, and Oakham, Surrey. Old English ac “oak” + hām “homestead,” “village,” “estate,” “manor.”
• Oakley  — from one of the places of the name, or simply ac “oak” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.” Only just qualifies for this list as it saw intermittent use in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but it’s got great Pagan credentials, combinine the name of one of the most revered of trees with lēah — indicative, erhaps at a place where once a sacred oak grove was found.
• Oakman — Old English: acmann “oakman.” A very curious and interesting word. Was it given to someone who played the Green Man in pageants, perhaps? Or simply someone who lived in an oakwood, or dealt in the wood of oaks?
• Odam — Middle English: odam “son-in-law.”
• Odart — from the Old German name Odhard; a combination of uod “riches” and hardu “hard,” “hardy.”
• Odber, Odbert — from the Old German name Odberht; uod “riches” + berht “bright.”
• Oden, Othen — from the Old Norse name Auðun (also a byname of Odin), which is actually found in the form Odin in medieval records. It is actually cognate with the Old English Edwin “rich-friend.”
• Odger, Ogier — from the Old German name Odger “rich-spear.”
• Odierne — from the medieval women’s name Hodierna, Odierna, from the Latin hodiernus “of today.”
• Offord — from one of the places of the name. Old English upp(e) + “ford.”
• Olney — from Olney, Buckinghamshire. Old English personal name *Olla + ēg “island.”
• Olton — from Olton, Warwickshire. Old English ēald “old” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Omond, Oman — from the Old Norse personal name Hámundr “high-protection” or Ámundi “protection of great-grandfather.”
• Onslow — from Onslow in Shropshire. Uncertain personal name (the Domesday form of the place was Ondeslow)  +  hlāw “tumulus,” “mound” and “hill.” Although it is not unknown in the UK (where it is particularly associated with a character in the ’90s sitcom Keeping Up Appearances), it has never featured in the US top 1000.
• Ordmer — from the Old English personal name Ordmær “famous-spear.”
• Ordway — from the Old English personal name Ordwig “spear-warriorr.”
• Orford — from one of the places of the name. Old English uferra “upper” + “ford.”
• Orme — from the Old Norse name Orm “serpent.”
• Ormesby — from one of the places of the name . Old Norse personal names Orm and Ormarr “famous serpent” + bý “farmstead,” “village” and “settlement.”
• Orpen, Orpin — Old French orpin “stonecrap,” a little wildflower once used in herbal medicine.
• Orrick — from the Old English personal name Ordric “spear-ruler.”
• Orriss, Orys — from the Latin family name Horatius, whose best-known member was the poet usually called Horace. Only one example is known of it in Britain in the Middle Ages, when it is found as the name of a priest, probably not of English birth. Whether all bearers of the surname descend from him or a lost Horatius is unknown.
• Orton — from one of the places called Orton or Overton. Old English uferra “upper” or ōfer “over” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Osmer — from the Old English personal name Osmær “fame of (a) God.”
• Ossell — Old French oisel “bird.”
• Ostler — Middle English (h)osteler “inn-keeper.”
• Ottery — from one of the places of the name: Venn Ottery, Ottery St Mary, Ottery St Catchpole… Old English oter “otter” + ēa “river.” Actually the name of a river, after which the places take their name.
• Oxley — from Oxley, Staffordshire. Old English oxa “oxen” + lēah “wood,” “woodland clearing,” “glade,” “pasture” and “meadow.”
• Oxney — from Oxney, Kent. Old English oxa “oxen” + ēg “island.”
• Oxton — from Oxton, Nottinghamshire. Old English oxa “oxen” + tūn “enclosure,” “farmstead,” “estate,” “manor,” “village.”
• Ozanne — from the medieval girl’s name Osanna, from Hebrew hosanna “save now.”
• Ozin, Osen — Old French oisen “gosling.”

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