These first names have commonly the diminutive (i.e. nickname) "Ozzi", "Ozzie", or "Ozzy".
Osmar exists also as a family name. The Mormon Church in Salt Lake City (Family Search) has a long list of members of the Osmar family in the United States and around the world, including variations on the name, such as Osemar, Osmer, Ossmer, Ossmar, Osmore, Osmur, Oesmer, Osmeyer, Usmar, Usmer, Asemar, Hosomer, Hasemer, Hesmer, Hosmar, and Hosmere. The US census of 1920 reports many Osmars in the US.
Another close first name is Ottomar, Ottmar, or Otmar, also old Germanic, meaning "Glorious or Famous Prosperous One."
In Brazil, where Osmar is a very common first name, it also mutated into other variations such as Osmaro, Osmarino and Osmario.
Other facts from the surname database
| Osmar comes from the Old English pre 7th Century male personal name Osmaer, "oss" meaning god and "maer" fame; hence "god-fame". The name Osmar and Osmer (without surname) appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, for Leicestershire and Devonshire respectively but the surname doesn't appear until the early part of the 13th Century. On July 15th 1571, Mary Hosmer, daughter of Richard Hosmer, was christened in Brenchley, Kent, and on September 18th 1580, a Jane Hosmer was christened there also. In April 1635, one, James Hosmer, a clothier, aged 28, his wife Ann and two daughters Marie, age 2, and Ann, (3 months) embarked from London on the "Elizabeth" bound for New England. They were among the earliest recorded name bearers to settle in America. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Osmere, which was dated 1230, in the Pipe Rolls of Devonshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling. |
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(English) God-Glorious [the Anglo-SaxonOsmœr—ós, a god + mǽre, glorious, famous] Osmœr was the name of the English soldier whose head, when he was killed by Eadric at the battle of Sceorstan (A.D. 1016), was boastingly paraded as that of King Eadmund, whom Osmær was said to closely resemble.
— Surnames of the United Kingdom (1912) by Henry Harrison
This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Osmar,' a personal name found in Domesday Book as Osmar and Osmer.
Other Osmar Variants: Osmer, Osmari, Yosmar, Osamar, Osmaro, Osmary, Osmara, Osmaer, Ossmar, Osumare, Yosmara. |
Interestingly, there is a village in Bulgaria called Osmar (Village of Osmar). Osmar is home to Bulgaria's second largest winery which exports all over the world. The bitter wine "Osmar Pelin" is apparently known worldwide.
There is also a town in Spain called El Burgo de Osma, the third largest municipality in the province of Soria. It is there that we can find the famous Mappa Mundi by Saint Osma Beatus from the 11th century.
Now Osmar has nothing to do with Project Ozma, a project carried out between April and July 1960 by DR. Frank Drake at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. [Drake, F. D. "Project Ozma," Physics Today, 14, 140 (1961)]. The project was humanity's first ever attempt to detect interstellar radio transmissions in search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It is this very project that brought about all other famous SETI programs today. Project Ozma was named after queen Ozma of the imaginary land of Oz by L. Frank Baum the author of the Wizard of Oz.
The link with me, however, is that Dr. Frank Drake began Project Ozma on April 11, 1960. April 11th is my birthday. What a coincidence. ;-)
| If you have comments or more information, let me know. |
Maintained by: Osmar R. Zaïane <zaiane@cs.ualberta.ca>