Olivia
- Pronunciation
- [O-li-vi-a]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Olive Tree
- Origin
- Romanian
About the Name Olivia
Olivia comes from the Latin oliva (olive tree). The olive carried significant weight in Mediterranean antiquity — symbol of peace, fruitfulness, and dignity, sacred to Athena, embedded in the customs of treaty-making and athletic victory through the olive crown. The name itself is unusual in that it appears to have been coined or popularized by William Shakespeare for the Countess Olivia in Twelfth Night (c. 1602), which is one of the earliest documented English uses.
For most of the centuries that followed, Olivia stayed a quietly literary choice — present in dictionaries and occasional novels but not widely used. The modern surge began in the 1990s and accelerated through the 2000s and 2010s as American parents rediscovered classical and Latinate girls' names. Olivia took the US #1 spot in 2019 and has held it since. High-visibility bearers include Hollywood golden-age star Olivia de Havilland, singer Olivia Newton-John of Grease, Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, and contemporary actress Olivia Wilde.
The name's appeal is its layered tone: classical and slightly bookish on paper, but soft and friendly when spoken. Its four-syllable length balances against the rhythm of typical English surnames, and it nicknames easily — most commonly to Liv, Livi, Livvy, or back to the literal Olive (now itself a popular name on its own). Related and translated forms include Olivie (Czech), Olivienne (French), and the masculine root Oliver, which sits in the US top 5 alongside Olivia.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Olivia
US Popularity History (1990–2025)
Annual US births named Olivia by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2014 with 19,836 girls named Olivia (girl rank #2 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #1 for girls (13,544 US births). That's 1 places above its earlier 2014 peak — the name is more popular now than it has ever been.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Olivia Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Olivia the strongest states are Illinois, Washington, Connecticut.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #1 | 5,942 |
| 2 | Washington | #1 | 3,650 |
| 3 | Connecticut | #1 | 1,826 |
| 4 | New York | #1 | 9,099 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | #1 | 1,933 |
| 6 | Colorado | #1 | 2,694 |
| 7 | Utah | #1 | 2,178 |
| 8 | Missouri | #1 | 2,963 |
| 9 | Kansas | #2 | 1,536 |
| 10 | Oregon | #2 | 1,747 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont | #10 | 188 |
| 2 | Alaska | #5 | 331 |
| 3 | South Dakota | #5 | 369 |
| 4 | West Virginia | #4 | 721 |
| 5 | Kentucky | #4 | 1,908 |
| 6 | District of Columbia | #4 | 381 |
| 7 | Wyoming | #4 | 212 |
| 8 | Maine | #4 | 515 |
| 9 | Montana | #3 | 425 |
| 10 | New Mexico | #3 | 734 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Olivia in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Olivia
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Olivia.
- Olivia Wilde — TV Actress (1984)
Looking for names like Olivia?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Olivia to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Olivia against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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