Osi

surname · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Osi is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in South Africa than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Initialism of Open Systems Interconnection, an International Standard ISO/IEC 7894:1994(E) subtitled Basic Reference Model, containing a formal description of an idealized computer network architectur.

rarermore common
  • FIFinland1 in 242K(measured from records)
  • ATAustria≈1 in 377K
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 467K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Osi itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

South Africa (inferred from the name graph)

≈69 named Oesi, est.

Sources
100 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 242K (inferred from the name graph)

Finland

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

Locally spelled Ösi in AT Austria and Oesi in ZA South Africa.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Initialism of Open Systems Interconnection, an International Standard ISO/IEC 7894:1994(E) subtitled Basic Reference Model, containing a formal description of an idealized computer network architecture.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Osi 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.

Where Osi is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
ZA South Africa—≈69 est.≈1 in 822K—Oesi6
AT Austria—≈23 est.≈1 in 377K—Ösi10
FI Finland—231 in 242K23——
IN India—201 in 66M20Osi6
AR Argentina—201 in 2.3M20——
CH Switzerland—181 in 467K18Osi3
DK Denmark—81 in 734K8——
NG Nigeria#110———Osi45

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: DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Osi is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Philippines, Argentina, Mexico, United States

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Ösï, Ösi, Ósi

  • Turkish surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, Syria, Nigeria

    Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

    Also written Oşi, Ösi

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Ősi

49 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Osi 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.

  • In Polish, wasp (of, pertaining to, or characteristic of wasps)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Latvian, accusative/instrumental/vocative singular of osis

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In apb, cut, score, bevel canoe planks for joints

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Osing.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In aia, cut, score; level off with a plane

    as a wordAustronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

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.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 23 sources across 15 countries.

Official registers attesting Osi
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls—91#7,570
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—23#41,117
AR ArgentinaRENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national)—20—
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls—20#80,086
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)202418#39,486
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—8#49,043

Reference works 2

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)

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

What does the name Osi mean, and where does it come from?
Initialism of Open Systems Interconnection, an International Standard ISO/IEC 7894:1994(E) subtitled Basic Reference Model, containing a formal description of an idealized computer network architectur… Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Osi have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 69 people named Oesi in South Africa, more than in any other country we hold.
Where is Osi most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Osi is densest in Finland — about 1 in 242 thousand people — even though South Africa holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Osi?
In Finland, the national register counted 23 people named Osi, about 1 in 242 thousand residents.
How common is Osi compared with other names?
In Nigeria, Osi is the 110th most common surname of 346,007 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Osi?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/osi

The same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Osi” — the 110th most common surname in Nigeria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Osi parses inside a full name →