Origin: Arabic عمر
Meaning: “populous; flourishing; life.”
Origin: Biblical Hebrew
The name can be of multiple origins and meanings, in Arabic, the name is derived from the word, عمر (umr) meaning, “life.”
The name was borne by the second caliphe of the Muslims as well as by a 12th-century Persian poet, Umar Khayyam.
In Hebrew, the name means “speaker” and is found Genesis 36:11 as the name of the son of Eliphaz.
The name may also be possibly related to the Hebrew, Omer, which means “sheaf of wheat” but was also the name of a unit of measuring in ancient times.
Omar is a popular name in Spanish-speaking countries, whether this is a leftover from Moorish occupied Spain or in reference to the Biblical Hebrew character is unknown.
As of 2010, Omar was the 54th most popular male name in Bosnia & Herzegovina. His rankings in other countries are as follows:
- # 4 (Arab world (2011) (BabyCenter Arabia members)
- # 4 (Pakistan)
- # 6 (Iraq, 2007)
- # 7 (Israel, Muslim boys, 2009)
- # 7 (Umar, Malaysia, 2011)
- # 8 (United Arab Emirates)
- # 9 (Omer, Israel, Jewish intersex names (given to both boys and girls) 2008)
- # 77 (Catalonia, 2010)
- # 87 (Spain, 2010)
- # 175 (United States, 2010)
- # 252 (Netherlands, 2010)
- # 289 (France, 2009)
Other forms include:
- Omeri (Albanian)
- Omer (Amharic/Kurdish)
- Umar عمر (Arabic)
- Omar Ома́р (Albanian/Arabic/Bosnian/Chechen/Dagestani/Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Persian/Russian/Spanish/Tajik/Tatar/Turkmen/Uzbek)
- Ömər (Azeri)
- Amar (Berber)
- Úmar (Catalan)
- Oumar/Oumarou (Sub-Saharan African)
- Ömer (Turkish)
In France, the designated name-day for Omer is September 9.
Other notable bearers include: Egyptian born actor Omar Sharif (b.1932); Omar al-Bashir (b.1944) the president of Sudan; and American actor, Omar Epps (b. 1973).