According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Osama — which had been rising slowly since the 1970s — saw a steep drop in usage following the turn of the century:
- 2003: 11 baby boys named Osama
- 2002: 11 baby boys named Osama
- 2001: 37 baby boys named Osama
- 2000: 54 baby boys named Osama
- 1999: 65 baby boys named Osama
- 1998: 47 baby boys named Osama
What made the name less popular?
Its association with Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of the militant Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
In 2001, Al-Qaeda carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks, during which 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners inside the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City, one was flown into the Pentagon in Virginia, and the final plane — initially aimed at a government building in Washington, D.C. — crash-landed in rural Pennsylvania. The four coordinated attacks killed a total of 2,977 people.
The ensuing search for Osama bin Laden lasted until mid-2011, when he was finally found (and killed) in Pakistan by the U.S. military.
Osama bin Laden (who was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the late 1950s) was named after Usama ibn Zayd, a companion of the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The name Usama/Osama means “lion” in Arabic. (The spelling Usama dropped out of the U.S. baby name data entirely after 2001, notably.)
Sources: Osama bin Laden – Wikipedia, Manhunt for Osama bin Laden – Wikipedia, SSA
Image: Adapted from Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri 2001 by Hamid Mir under CC BY-SA 3.0.
