Oliver
Feminine · “Contested: an olive tree”
Oliver is given to boys far more often — 269,903 boys against 777 girls since 1880. See Oliver as a boy name
Oliver is a boy's name with a small, real history of use for girls, concentrated in the decades either side of 1900. Its female peak is 1905 — the same period that gave daughters Willie, Frankie, Jesse and Sidney, when American naming was far less strict about which names belonged to whom.
How old is the name Oliver?
Oliver first appears in US birth records in 1905 — 120 years ago. The typical Oliver alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 500 people named Oliver are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Oliver most popular?
Oliver peaked in 1905, reaching #1298 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 3,940 places below that high. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Óláfr to Oliver
The story of Oliver
Olivier is Roland's companion in the Chanson de Roland, and the pairing of the two made the name ordinary across medieval Europe. English took it as Oliver, and Oliver Cromwell made it unusable in England for two centuries afterwards; Dickens's Oliver Twist restored it in 1838. Its use for American girls is a separate and much smaller thing: through the late nineteenth century American families gave daughters surnames and men's names with some freedom, and Oliver appears in that pattern with a peak in 1905. The habit faded, and Olivia — a name Shakespeare appears to have coined for Twelfth Night — took over the whole territory in the twenty-first century.
Meaningscholars disagree
Contested: an olive tree, or Norse elf-army
Two derivations compete and both are old. The French Olivier looks like olivier, the olive tree, and medieval writers already read it that way. Philologists more often derive it from the Norse Áleifr or Óláfr — ancestor's descendant — reshaped by French speakers under the influence of the olive word. The Germanic Alfihar, elf-army, is a third proposal. No reading is settled.
How the name formed
- Óláfr
- Olivier
- Oliver
Related forms: Olivier · Óláfr · Oliverio · Oliviero · Oliver
Pronouncing Oliver
OL-i-ver
Three syllables, stress on the first. French Olivier has four with the stress at the back, oh-lee-vee-AY, which is a noticeably different name to the ear.
Nicknames for Oliver
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
- 1905
- Most girls named
- 202228 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1298reached in 1905
- Change vs 2023
- −14.3%24 in 2025, from 28
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.
Oliver in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Olivier in French — related form
- Óláfr in Old Norse — related form
- Oliverio in Spanish — related form
- Oliviero in Italian — related form
- Oliver in Czech — same name
Olivers among us
people named Oliver are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Oliver
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Oliver 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
Oliver beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Oliver in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ollie and Liv are both excellent short forms with independent lives.
- Everyone can say and spell it on first sight.
- It has an unbroken European history running back to the eleventh century.
- It is overwhelmingly a boy's name in current American use, and among the most popular of them.
- Olivia is the established feminine and will be assumed.
- The meaning has been argued over for eight hundred years and is still not settled.
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Oliver
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Olivers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Oliver are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Oliver in 2025?
- Oliver ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Oliver?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Oliver — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Oliver with classmates?
- Oliver will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Oliver
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Oliver? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Oliver and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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