Olivia
Masculine · “Latin "olive”
Olivia is given to girls far more often — 567,345 girls against 791 boys since 1880. See Olivia as a girl name
Shakespeare invented Olivia. It appears first in Twelfth Night, around 1602, with no earlier record — and four hundred years later it was the most popular girls' name in America. He also gave the language Jessica, Miranda, and Imogen, which is a printer's misreading of Innogen.
How old is the name Olivia?
Olivia first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Olivia alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Olivia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Olivia most popular?
Olivia peaked in 2004, reaching #1731 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 5,948 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From oliva to Olivia
The story of Olivia
Shakespeare's coinages that stuck are few but consequential. Olivia and Jessica both first appear in his plays and both became top-ten American names four centuries later. Miranda is from The Tempest, built on Latin mirandus, to be wondered at. Imogen is the strangest case: the character in Cymbeline is Innogen in Holinshed, the source, and the name appears as Imogen in the First Folio, which is generally taken as a compositor misreading two minims as an m — so a widely used name exists because of a typesetting error in 1623. Olivia's male American figures peak in 2004.
Meaningscholars disagree
Latin "olive", probably by invention
Olivia has no attested use before Twelfth Night and is generally taken as Shakespeare's coinage, most likely built on Latin oliva, an olive, or on the existing masculine Oliver. Oliver itself is disputed: it may be from the olive or from a Germanic name Alfihar. The male figures for Olivia in the American record are very small and reflect a name now almost entirely female.
How the name formed
- oliva
- Olivia
Related forms: Olivia · Olivia · Olivie
Pronouncing Olivia
oh-LIV-ee-uh
Four syllables, stress on the second. Italian and Spanish say oh-LEE-vyah with a longer stressed vowel and the last two syllables run together.
Nicknames for Olivia
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
- 1923
- Most boys named
- 200473 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1731reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- −37.5%10 in 2025, from 16
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.
Olivia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Olivia in Italian — same name
- Olivia in Spanish — same name
- Olivie in French — same name
Olivias among us
people named Olivia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Olivia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Toribio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Olivia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Toribio climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Toribio's path sketches the road Olivia is walking now.
Olivia 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
Olivia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Olivia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a documented author and an approximate date of invention.
- Liv and Ollie are ready short forms.
- The olive association is settled and entirely positive.
- In America it is overwhelmingly a female name.
- It has been among the most popular girls' names for years running.
- Four syllables means it is usually shortened in daily use.
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Olivia
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Olivias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Olivia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Olivia in 2025?
- Olivia ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Olivia?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Olivia — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Olivia with classmates?
- Olivia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Olivia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Olivia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Olivia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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