Otto is a masculine German given name. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants Audo, Odo, Udo) of Germanic names beginning in aud-, an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded from the 7th century (Odo, son of Uro, courtier of Sigebert III). It was the name of three 10th-century German kings, the first of whom was Otto I the Great, the first Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the Ottonian dynasty.
The Gothic form of the prefix was auda- (as in e.g. Audaþius), the Anglo-Saxon form was ead- (as in e.g. Eadmund), the Old Norse form was auð-.
The given name Otis arose from an English surname, which was in turn derived from Ode, a variant form of Odo, Otto.
Due to Otto von Bismarck, the given name Otto was strongly associated with the German Empire in the later 19th century. It was comparatively frequently given in the United States (presumably in German American families) during the 1880s to 1890s, remaining in the top 100 most popular masculine given names in the US throughout 1880–1898, but its popularity decreased significantly after 1900 with increasing anti-German sentiment leading up to World War I; it fell below rank 200 in 1919, below rank 500 in 1947, and below rank 1000 in 1975; it re-entered the top-1000 most popular given names in the US only in the 2010s, ranking 696th as of 2013.
Otto (mayor of the palace) (died 643 or 644), mayor of the palace of Austrasia briefly in the mid-7th century
Otto I, Duke of Saxony (851–912)
the Ottonian, dynasty
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912–973)
Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (955–983)
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (980–1002)
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1175/1176–1218)
Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158), bishop and chronicler
Otto Dowling (1881–1946), 25th Governor of American Samoa
Otto of Greece (1815–1867), King of Greece
Otto of Bavaria (1848–1916), King of Bavaria
Otto Adler, president of the Jewish Association of Romania
Otto T. Bannard (1854–1929), American attorney, businessman and philanthropist.
Otto Frank (1889–1980), German-born Swiss business man, father of Anne Frank
Otto Freundlich (1878–1943), German painter and sculptor
Otto Graham (1921–2003), professional American football and basketball player
Otto Graf Lambsdorff (1926–2009), German politician
Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964), East German politician
Otto Herschmann (1877–1942), Austrian Olympic fencing and swimming medalist
Otto Knows (born 1989), Swedish DJ
Otto Klemperer (1885–1973), German-born conductor and composer
Otto Kretschmer (1912–1998), German World War II U-Boat Captain
Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896), German aviator
Otto Peterson (1960–2014), American comedian (Otto & George ventriloquism act)
Otto Plath (1885–1940), father of American Poet, Sylvia Plath, and entomologist
Otto Preminger (1905–1986), Austro–Hungarian-born American film director
Otto Rehhagel (born 1938), German football coach
Otto Scheff (1889–1956), Austrian Olympic swimming champion
Otto Schmitt (field hockey) (born 1965), Argentine field hockey goalkeeper
Otto Skorzeny (1908–1975), Austrian-born Waffen-SS commando
Otto Soglow (1900–1975), American cartoonist
Otto van Verschuer (1927–2014), Dutch politician
Otto Christian Archibald von Bismarck (1897–1975), German politician and diplomat
Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), Prussian/German statesman
Otto von Habsburg (1912–2011), head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine from 1922 to 2007
Otto Waalkes (born 1948), German comedian and actor
Otto Wahle (1879–1963), Austrian-born American Olympic swimming medalist and Hall of Fame
Otto F. Walter (1928–1994), Swiss journalist, author and publisher
Otto Frederick Warmbier (born 1994), American student imprisoned in North Korea
Otto Weininger (1880–1903), Christian Austrian philosopher
Otto Dix (1891–1969), German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war
Otto Maximiliano Pereira de Cordeiro Ferreira (born 1968), Brazilian singer-songwriter, drummer and TV presenter
Otto Wichterle (1913-1998), Czech chemist, best known for his invention of modern soft contact lenses.
Herr Otto Flick, a character in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
Otto Maddox, a character in the movie Repo Man, played by Emilio Estevez
Otto Mann, character on the animated TV series The Simpsons
Otto Meyer, a character in the 1963 movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, played by Phil Silvers
Otto Normalverbraucher, a home coming soldier in a 1948 movie played by Gert Fröbe, is used in German to denote the average consumer (literally) or the small man on the street
Otto Octavius, fictional Marvel Comics supervillain otherwise known as Doctor Octopus. One of Spider-Man's nemeses
Otto Osworth, a character in the Cartoon Network animated TV series Time Squad
Otto, Gothel's pet talking ferret in the 2002 direct-to-video Barbie film Barbie as Rapunzel, voiced by Peter Kelamis
Otto Rocket, the main character of Nickelodeon's Rocket Power
Otto the Dog, a dog belonging to one of the characters in the comic strip Beetle Bailey
Otto the Gorilla, Dr. Satan's fretful right-hand man in Rob Zombie's satire comedy The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
Otto the Autopilot, the blow-up autopilot doll in Airplane! (1980)
Otto West, a character in the 1988 movie A Fish Called Wanda
Otto Malpense, the main character in the H.I.V.E. series by Mark Walden
Otto Delaney, a character in the drama Sons of Anarchy on the American TV network FX, played by series creator Kurt Sutter
Otto "Unbreakable" Zander, from the video game series X-COM Enemy Unknown
Otto the Orange, Syracuse University Mascot
Otto Wattenbarger, a character in Bodie Thoene's Zion Covenant book series
Otto (dog) (1989–2010), world's oldest dog
Otocinclus, Sucking catfish, often known as 'Otto'
Otto Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA