New Zealand Baby Names

English, Iris, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Irish Mythology.

Possibly means “deer lover”, derived from Gaelic os “deer” and cara “lover”. Alternatively, it may derive from the Old English name OSGAR or its Old Norse cognateÁSGEIRR, which may have been brought to Ireland by Viking invaders and settlers. In Irish legend Oscar was the son of the poet Oisín and the grandson of the hero Fionn mac Cumhail.

This name was popularized in continental Europe by the works of the 18th-century Scottish poet James Macpherson. Napolean was an admirer of Macpherson, and he suggested Oscar as the second middle name of his godson, who eventually became king of Sweden as Oscar I. Another notable bearer was the Irish writer and humourist Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) (Behindthename.com)

Baby Name Wizard

Origin of the name Oscar: derived from a Norman baronial name taken from a French place-name meaning “golden city.” Others think it is merely an invention of the novelist Fanny Burney, who used it for the hero in her novel Evelina (1778). From A World of Baby Names by Teresa Norman