Boy · Arabic · Muslim
Usman
عثمانSay it us-MAAN
- Meaning today
- Wise
- Original meaning
- "the young of a species of bustard; also, a young serpent" Lane, p. 1954
- Say it
- us-MAAN
- Written
- عثمان
- Other spellings
- Uthman, Osman, Othman
Usman
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Usman meaning
Usman (عثمان) is a Muslim boy's name of Arabic origin.
Meaning today
Wise
Original Arabic meaning
"the young of a species of bustard; also, a young serpent"
Source: Lane, An Arabic–English Lexicon, Book I, Part 5 (1874), p. 1954 · entry ʿuthmān (عُثْمَانٌ), root ʿ-th-m · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026
Usman (عثمان) is the South Asian pronunciation of the Arabic ʿUthmān; in Urdu the Arabic th is spoken as s. Lane records ʿuthmān as the young of a species of bustard, a large ground bird of the desert, and other classical authorities add the young of a serpent. Name lists in India often give Usman as "wise"; we found no dictionary support for that sense, which seems to describe the name's most famous bearer rather than the word. That bearer is ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, the third caliph, under whom the standard text of the Quran was compiled. The Ottoman dynasty also took its name from its founder, Osman, whose name is the Turkish form of the same word.
References: Lane, ʿ-th-m, p. 1954 (Part 5 scan, leaf 238) · Wikipedia, Uthman (name) · Britannica, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān · Britannica, Osman I
Famous namesakes
- ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, third caliph (644–656)
- Osman I, founder of the Ottoman dynasty
Popularity abroad
- #436 England and Wales, boys 2025
Office for National Statistics
Official birth registrations. India publishes no national name statistics.
Spellings
Usman · Uthman · Osman · Othman