Meaning and history
Oswald derives from the Old English elements os meaning “god” and weald meaning “powerful, mighty.” The name was borne by Saint Oswald, a 7th-century king of Northumbria who helped introduce Christianity to northeastern England before dying in battle, and by the 10th-century Saint Oswald of Worcester, who was of Danish ancestry and reflects the Old Norse cognate Ásvaldr used in England. Although the name had fallen out of use by the end of the Middle Ages, it was revived in the 19th century.
20062006: 18 births, rank #4,865
2007: 20 births, rank #4,640
2008: 14 births, rank #6,070
2009: 19 births, rank #4,922
2010: 21 births, rank #4,517
20112011: 18 births, rank #4,983
2012: 14 births, rank #6,001
2013: 19 births, rank #4,804
2014: 27 births, rank #3,787
2015: 26 births, rank #3,982
20162016: 36 births, rank #3,161
2017: 38 births, rank #3,071
2018: 41 births, rank #2,893
2019: 42 births, rank #2,897
2020: 39 births, rank #2,980
20212021: 54 births, rank #2,464
2022: 55 births, rank #2,493
2023: 65 births, rank #2,188
2024: 70 births, rank #2,120
20252025: 67 births, rank #2,145
Oswald moved from #883 to #932 for boys between 1932 and 1933. Its highest annual birth count came in 1916, with 107 births.