Olivia
Feminine name of Latin origin meaning "olive tree".
According to our analysis of Social Security Administration records, Olivia holds the top spot among all US first names with roughly 524,918 living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Olivia today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Olivia births was 2014 (19,859 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Olivia. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Olivia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Olivia is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 781 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
525K
~ 1 in 653 Americans
Peak year
2014
19,859 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1
Tracked since 1880
Census
Olivia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 449,371 people with the first name Olivia, which placed it at #102 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#102
National first-name rank
People counted
449K
449,371 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
148.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Olivia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olivia is White at 64.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.9%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Olivia described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Olivia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.3% · 288,861
- Hispanic or Latino18.9% · 84,752
- Two or more races6.4% · 28,575
- Black or African American6.3% · 28,507
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 16,491
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2,185
Gender
Gender distribution for Olivia
Out of the 554,445 babies given the name Olivia since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Olivia as a male name
- Ranked #5,811 in 2024
- 16 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (73 births)
Olivia as a female name
- Ranked #1 in 2024
- 14,718 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (19,836 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olivia appears almost entirely female. Of the 449,373 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Olivia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Olivia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 184,696 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Olivia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Olivia by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Olivia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Olivias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Olivia, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10,741 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Olivia
The name Olivia has its origins in the Latin language, derived from the word "oliva," meaning "olive." This connection to the olive tree can be traced back to ancient Roman times, where the olive branch was a symbol of peace and fertility.
The name's popularity spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in countries with strong ties to Latin culture, such as Italy, Spain, and France. It was often associated with the olive tree's symbolism of peace, as well as its connection to the Virgin Mary, who was sometimes referred to as the "Olive of Paradise."
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Olivia can be found in William Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night," written around 1601. In the play, Olivia is a wealthy and beautiful countess who becomes the object of affection for several characters. This literary reference helped popularize the name in English-speaking countries.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Olivia. One of the most famous was Olivia de Havilland (1916-2016), the British-American actress who won two Academy Awards for her roles in "To Each His Own" (1946) and "The Heiress" (1949). Another notable Olivia was Olivia Clemens (1845-1890), the wife of famous American author Mark Twain.
In the field of literature, Olivia Shakespear (1863-1938) was a renowned English novelist and essayist, while Olivia Rossetti Agresti (1875-1960) was an Italian writer and activist who campaigned for women's rights. The world of classical music also had its Olivia in the form of Olivia Dussek (1798-1847), a British pianist and composer.
Regardless of its origins, the name Olivia has maintained its popularity across generations, often associated with notions of peace, beauty, and grace. Its enduring charm and classical roots have made it a beloved choice for parents around the world.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Olivia
People
Olivia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Olivia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Olivia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Olivia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 524,918 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Olivia going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 653 US residents.
Is Olivia a common name?
We classify Olivia as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 554,445 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Olivia most popular?
The single biggest year for Olivia was 2014, when 19,859 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Olivia is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Olivia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 449,371 people with the name Olivia, or 148.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #102 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Olivia in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Olivia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olivia appears almost entirely female. Of the 449,373 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Olivia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olivia is White at 64.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.9%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Olivia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Olivia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.3% (288,861 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Olivia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Olivia a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Olivia in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Olivia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Olivia in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Olivia can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Olivia?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.