Ozzy began as a nickname for Oswald, Osborne and Oscar, Germanic and Norse names built on the element os, "god", so Oswald means "god's power" and Osborne "divine bear". Rock singer Ozzy Osbourne made the nickname famous, and the current taste for cheeky short names has turned it into a given name. In the United States Ozzy entered the top 1000 in 2021 and reaches number 549 among boys' names in 2025, its best rank yet.