Otto

OT-oh. Stress the first syllable; o as in British English lot.

One British English form

Phonetic notation

/ˈɒt.əʊ/

A short name with a long history. If you like a short name with a historical thread, Otto offers one: Otto I, known as Otto the Great, was crowned emperor in 962.¹²

Keep Otto

The wealth connection

Otto grew from German short forms of names beginning with Ot- or Od-. That older name element carries the sense of wealth or property.³⁴

A name across northern Europe

Otto is used in German, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish naming. A family connection to one of those languages can be part of what draws you to it.⁴

Saying Otto in British English

OT-oh, with the emphasis on OT. The first vowel is the British English o in “lot”.

Udo is a related choice

Udo is a German variant related to Otto. You can consider it alongside Otto if that connection interests you.

UdoUdo is a variant of Otto.

Sources

Otto I (the Great) — World Encyclopedia via Encyclopedia.com, encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)
Otto 1. den store — Jon Gunnar Arntzen, Store norske leksikon, snl.no (opens in a new tab)
Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, ōt — Gerhard Köbler, koeblergerhard.de (opens in a new tab)
Otto (mannsnamn) — Gulbrand Alhaug, Store norske leksikon, snl.no (opens in a new tab)

Researched from sources and checked in a separate review. We list reference works, not other baby-name websites. Last revised 4 October 2026.

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