Variant of Otis, from the Germanic name Otto meaning 'wealth' or 'prosperity.'
Ottis is a variant spelling of Otis, which itself derives from the Old German "Odo" or "Otto," rooted in the proto-Germanic element "aud" meaning wealth, fortune, or prosperity. The name traveled into English usage partly through the medieval European fashion for Germanic royal names — Otto was the name of four Holy Roman Emperors — and partly through the surname tradition, where families named Otis or Ottis appear in New England records as early as the colonial period. The extra "t" in Ottis gives the name a slightly more emphatic, Americanized quality.
The most famous bearer of the Otis name in American cultural memory is Otis Redding, the Macon, Georgia-born soul singer whose voice carried a raw emotional authority that made songs like "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" and "Try a Little Tenderness" into permanent fixtures of the American songbook. His death in a plane crash in 1967 at age 26 elevated him instantly into legend. NFL running back Ottis Anderson — two t's — won a Super Bowl MVP with the New York Giants in 1991, giving this specific spelling its own moment of mainstream visibility.
The name also carries a curious industrial ghost: Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of the safety elevator brake in 1852, transformed urban architecture and made vertical cities possible. His invention — demonstrated by riding an elevator and then having the cable cut, trusting his own safety mechanism — was one of the great theatrical acts of the Industrial Age. Today Ottis occupies a niche between old-fashioned American charm and soulful cultural resonance, a name that rewards those who pause to consider its layers.