Olin
Masculine · “ancestor's descendant”
Olin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 9,929 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Olin is Scandinavian — a surname from Olof, whose Norse original is ancestral heir, and which belongs to two Norwegian kings and a Swedish patron saint.
How old is the name Olin?
Olin was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Olin alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 4,600 people named Olin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Olin most popular?
Olin peaked in 1892, reaching #320 nationally. Today it ranks #1837, 1,517 places below that high. See the whole 1892 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Áleifr to Olin
The story of Olin
Olof was a great Scandinavian royal name — Olaf II of Norway became the country's patron saint after his death in 1030 — and Swedish surname-making added -in to produce Olin. Swedish emigration to the American Midwest in the nineteenth century brought the name, and it appears in the registers from the 1880s, peaking around 1918.
Meaningscholars disagree
ancestor's descendant
Usually read through Olof, from the Old Norse Áleifr — anu, 'ancestor', and leifr, 'heir' or 'descendant'. The -in ending is a Swedish surname suffix. An English route from a place name is sometimes proposed but is the weaker reading.
How the name formed
- Áleifr
- Olof
- Olin
Related forms: Olof · Olav · Olen
Pronouncing Olin
OH-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Olin and Olen are said identically.
Nicknames for Olin
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1921197 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #320reached in 1892
- Change vs 2022
- −19.6%86 in 2025, from 107
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Olin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Olof in Swedish — related form
- Olav in Norwegian — related form
- Olen in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, California, Wisconsin.
Olins among us
people named Olin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 19,861 born in 2025 was named Olin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Olin
- #1837
- Olin on the 2025 chart
- #821
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Olin went to 86 boys in 2025, but Ollin and Olyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 107, which makes it the 821st most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,016 places above the chart.
- Olin86
- Ollin15
- Olyn6
About 1 boy in 15,963 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 19,861 for Olin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Olin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Olin is headed
Olin is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Olin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Olin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Olof behind it belongs to kings and a national patron saint.
- Ollie is available as a short form with real currency now.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It reads as distinctly Scandinavian-American.
- Owen and Colin are both close enough to cause confusion.
- It is period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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Olin
Masculine · #1837 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Olins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,600 people named Olin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Olin?
- Olin is the most-used spelling in US records — 86 of the 107 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Ollin and Olyn.
- How popular is the name Olin in 2025?
- Olin ranks #1837 among US boy names in 2025, with 86 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Olin?
- About 1 in every 19,861 US boys born in 2025 was named Olin — 86 in all.
- Will my child share the name Olin with classmates?
- Olin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Olin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Atreyu#1837 · Aariz#1837 · Artemis#1837 · Lonnie#1837 · Nile#1837 · Kennedy#1837 · Stephan#1837 · Jennings#1837
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Olin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Olin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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