Odin
Meaning
chief god of Norse mythology, "fury, inspiration"
The story
Odin is the Anglicized form of the Old Norse Óðinn, a name grown from óðr, meaning frenzied, furious, or inspired, the divine madness of the poet and the warrior alike. He is the chief god of Norse mythology, the one-eyed wanderer who traded an eye for a drink from the well of wisdom and hung nine nights on the world-tree to win the runes, the letters that were also magic. God of war, poetry, death and knowledge, he is the most restless and searching of the old gods. As a given name Odin is genuinely modern in the United States, rising fast on a wave of Norse names that includes Freya and Thor. Short, hard and mythic, it hands a child the whole northern sky, a god who valued wisdom enough to suffer for it.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Odin peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
159 people · the #29,875 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 32
Among people named Odin living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 31 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Odin
Most people given the name Odin in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Odin deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Odin truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Odin fits with your family’s names and surname.
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