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Russell vs Oliver

How Russell and Oliver compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Russell

Male · English

Meaning: Fox

Oliver

Male · French

Meaning: Legend Name

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Russell (boys) vs Oliver (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Russell Oliver
Peak year (most US births) 1960 — 7,482 boys 2024 — 15,343 boys
Peak rank #56 #3
Most recent rank (2025) #345 (944 births) #3 (14,939 births)
Total US births since 1880 327,895 212,737
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 8,424 142,959

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Oliver reached 15,343 US births in 2024 — 7,861 more than Russell's peak count.

Crossover Years

Years where one name first passed the other in annual US births. A name "winning" in a year means it had more births that year, not necessarily a higher rank.

Year New leader Russell births Oliver births
1892 Russell 269 238
2000 Oliver 894 978

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Russell — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Montana #182 30
2 Utah #204 247
3 Maine #214 26
4 New Hampshire #216 19
5 South Dakota #229 26

Oliver — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Oregon #1 2,043
2 Iowa #1 1,836
3 Utah #1 2,587
4 Idaho #1 1,137
5 Wisconsin #1 2,988

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →