The term ocarina itself actually refers to the modern renditions of the instrument with a fipple mouth piece, whereas throughout history, it would be more likely known as a vessel flute.
The vessel flute can be found in many places and cultures around the globe like: South and Central America, India, Egypt, Central Africa, and China. Archeological evidence shows that vessel flutes are more than 12,000 years old.
In the fifteenth century the Germans made a variation of the vessel flute called the gemshorn. This was made out of horn and due to its fipple mouth piece can be considered an early ocarina.
Vessel flutes were truly introduced to Europe in 1527 when Hernan Cortez sent a group of Aztec musicians and dancers to perform for Emperor Charles V. The performers, being very popular, were sent to perform all across Europe. Replicas of these performers’ instruments grew in popularity and were sold as novelties, decoration, and children’s’ toys.
The modern ocarina was created in 1853 by Giuseppe Donati who extended the Aztec replicas to play a full diatonic scale and made them in different sizes to play different scales. Based on their shape Giuseppe also gave them the name of “little goose” which translates to Italian as “ocarina”.
The ocarina hasn’t had many changes, but there are a few modern improvements and variations.
In 1928 a Japanese craftsmen by the name of Takashi Aketagawa began to make ocarinas that could play an additional three semitones. This improvement was popularized in 1985 by Nomura Sojiro who provided ocarina music for the documentary “The Great Yellow River”.
Another major contributor to the ocarina was John Taylor, an English mathematician who in 1960 developed a four-hole ocarina that could play a whole eight note scale.
The modern ocarina has had varying levels of popularity, but all that changed in 1998. In 1998 the video game “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” was released for the Nintendo 64 gaming system. The game was huge hit and featured music on an ocarina, which in turn rose the instruments popularity immensely. Ocarina of Time replicas are still some of the most sought after ocarinas. Allen. "Ocarina History - OcarinaForest.com." OcarinaForestcom RSS2. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.