Orso
surname · Latin script
Meaning: bear (e.g. a large, lumbering person), or local name for someone who lived in a house distinguished with the sign of a bear, from It
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈɔɹsoʊ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Orso is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 291K(measured from records)
- ITItaly≈1 in 42K
- IEIreland≈1 in 42K
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.
- Brazil (measured from records)
- Sources
- 200 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 42K (inferred from the name graph)
2,747 people
Highest-authority source
Italy, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
bear (e.g. a large, lumbering person), or local name for someone who lived in a house distinguished with the sign of a bear, from It. orso bear (L ursus). O’Ryan see Ryan Vars.: Orsi; Urso, Ursi (S Italy).
Sources 1
- The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Orso 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | 2,747 | 1 in 77K | 2.7K | — | 4 |
| IT Italy | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 42K | 2 | Orso | 31 |
| CD Congo - Kinshasa | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 88K | — | Orso | 1 |
| US United States | 1,142 | 1 in 291K | 1.1K | Orso | 200 |
| AR Argentina | 487 | 1 in 93K | 487 | — | — |
| IE Ireland | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 42K | — | Orso | 1 |
2,747 people counted by IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname). 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 — Surname Frequency 2010; IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname); RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national); ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend). 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)
Orso 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 Italian, Dal germanico bar/ber 'orso'; in onomastica latina anche Ursus.
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Italian, dal latino ursus, 'orso'.
as a nameDizionario Dei Nomi e Cognomi Italiani
In Italian, L'eqiiivaleiite germanico (bar, ber) ha largbissima parte nella formazione di noini; ma anche nella ono- mantica latina Ursus è abbastanza freqiie,nte. Otto Santi; in Italia S. Orso arciaescovo di Ravenna, 13 aprile. Cogn. Orsi, Orsatti, Orsetti. Orsini.
as a nameNomi e Cognomi: Saggio di ricerche etimologiche e storiche
In Italian, forma italiana de Ursus
as a nameDicionário dos sobrenomes italianos
Forte come un orso
as a nameIl grande libro dei nomi per bebè. Significato, origini, curiosità. Oltre 7000 nomi per bambine e bambini Significato,…
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)
- Michel Orsob. 1936FRFrench singer
- Anna Orsob. 1938ITItalian actress (1938-2012)
- Jean-Charles Orsob. 1958FRFrench rugby union player
- Duilio Orsob. 1977ARArgentinian actor
- Daniel Orsob. 1997ITItalian rugby union player
- Stéphanie OrsoFRFrench microbiologist
- Pietro OrsoRoman Catholic archbishop
- Daniele OrsoITresearcher
- Rodrigo OrsoBRresearcher
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 29 sources across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 2.7K | #3,694 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.1K | #22,516 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.1K | #23,289 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.1K | #21,998 |
| AR Argentina | RENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national) | — | 487 | — |
| IT Italy | 意大利语姓名译名手册 (Xinhua Italian Name Manual) | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
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
- Where does the name Orso come from?
- bear (e.g. a large, lumbering person), or local name for someone who lived in a house distinguished with the sign of a bear, from It. orso bear (L ursus). Recorded by The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles.
- How do you pronounce Orso?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈɔɹsoʊ/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Orso mean?
- Recorded meaning: bear (e.g. a large, lumbering person), or local name for someone who lived in a house distinguished with the sign of a bear, from It.
- In which country does Orso have the most bearers?
- In Brazil, the national register counted about 2.7 thousand people named Orso, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Orso?
- In Brazil, the national register counted 2,747 people named Orso, about 1 in 77 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Orso?
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/orsoThe 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, “Orso”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.