Opal
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity, of the chemical formula SiO₂·nH₂O
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/oʊpəl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Opal is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 26K(measured from records)
- ITItaly≈1 in 28K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 29K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 325 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 7.4K (inferred from the name graph)
≈140,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Mauritania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity, of the chemical formula SiO₂·nH₂O.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Where in the world(measured from records)
Opal counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈140,000 est. | ≈1 in 9.7K | — | Opal | 5 |
| US United States | — | 13,016 | 1 in 26K | 13K | Opal | 325 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 29K | 16 | Opal | 61 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 28K | listed | Opal | 5 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈2,200 est. | ≈1 in 47K | — | Opal | 10 |
| MR Mauritania | #111 | ≈540 est. | ≈1 in 7.4K | — | Opal | 1 |
| SG Singapore | #858 | ≈510 est. | ≈1 in 12K | — | Opal | 7 |
| IE Ireland | #608 | ≈350 est. | ≈1 in 15K | — | Opal | 5 |
| JM Jamaica | #244 | ≈280 est. | ≈1 in 10K | — | Opal | 14 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); the il-grande-libro-nomi-bebe-2020 register. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Opal is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Joya, piedra preciosa
as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
Gioiello
as a nameIl grande libro dei nomi per bebè. Significato, origini, curiosità. Oltre 7000 nomi per bambine e bambini Significato,…
English: one of the rarer female names taken in the late 19th century from vocabulary words for gemstones. This is ultimately derived (via Latin and Greek) from an Indian language (cf. Sanskrit upala precious stone).
as a word
In Romanian, OPÁL, opale, s. n. 1. Piatră semiprețioasă, cu luciu sticlos, incoloră sau variat colorată (verde, albastru, roșu, alb etc.), transparentă sau opalescentă. 2. Țesătură de bumbac subțire și străvezie, albă sau colorată în nuanțe deschise, din care se fac bluze, cămăși, batiste etc. [Pl. și: opaluri].
as a wordDEX online (dexonline.ro) - DEX '96 / DEX '98 definitions with etymology
In Basque, Elgezua arri-irudigillea ta biok lagun aundiak izan ei dira eta gorputzaren arpegi-irudi bat atara ei dau Eibarreko ertilari opal onek . Alzola Atalak 111 (interpr?; quizá errata por apal ) .
as a wordOrotariko Euskal Hiztegia (OEH) — General/Historical Basque Dictionary, Euskaltzaindia
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Opal Hillb. 1892USprofessional golfer (1892-1981)
- Opal Kunzb. 1894USAmerican aviator (1894–1967)
- Opal Whiteleyb. 1897USAmerican writer (1897-1992)
- Opal Wilcox Barronb. 1914USFirst Lady of West Virginia (1914-2010)
- Janet Asimovb. 1926USnot in their usual nameauthor, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst (1926–2019)
- Opal Leeb. 1926USAfrican-American retired teacher, counselor, and activist
- Ayọ Tometib. 1984USnot in their usual nameAmerican human rights activist
- Lauren Boebertb. 1986USnot in their usual nameUnited States Representative from Colorado since 2021
- Opal Soferb. 1997ILIsraeli association footballer
- Opal CarewCAwriter
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 40 sources across 22 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 13K | #2,084 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 740 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 102 | #2,084 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1944 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 3 | #790 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2025 | — | — |
| IT Italy | Il Grande Libro dei Nomi per Bebè (2020) | — | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | The Penguin Book of Baby Names (David Pickering) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Opal a male or female name?
- Opal is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Opal mean, and where does it come from?
- A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity, of the chemical formula SiO₂·nH₂O. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How common is the name Opal?
- In the United States, the national register counted 13,016 people named Opal in 2020, about 1 in 26 thousand residents.
- How common is Opal compared with other names?
- In Mauritania, Opal is the 111th most common given name of 605 given names recorded there.
- What are other forms of the name Opal?
- In the etymology graph, Opaline is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Opal have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 144 thousand people named Opal in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled opal.
- How do you pronounce Opal?
- A machine transcription gives /oʊpəl/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Opal?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/opalThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Opal” — the 111th most common given name in Mauritania. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.