Ollen
A Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse word "ołlungr" meaning "brave one".
Name Census estimates that about 67 living Americans carry the first name Ollen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ollen today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ollen births was 1919 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ollen. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Ollen is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Ollens were born before 1963.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Ollen. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
67
~ 1 in 5,115,736 Americans
Peak year
1919
17 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,649
Tracked since 1910
Census
Ollen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 151 people with the first name Ollen, which placed it at #45,179 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
#45,179
National first-name rank
People counted
151
151 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ollen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ollen is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (18.5%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Ollen 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 Ollen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 105
- Black or African American18.5% · 28
- Two or more races6.0% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 2
Popularity
Ollen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ollen from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 105 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ollen 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 Ollen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ollen
The name Ollen is of Germanic origin, derived from the Old Norse word "ǫllu," which means "energy" or "vigor." This name was particularly popular among the Vikings and other Norse peoples during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ollen can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, which were written in the 13th century. In the Saga of Erik the Red, there is a character named Ollen Thorvaldsson, who was one of the first Norse settlers in Greenland.
During the Viking Age, the name Ollen was often associated with strength, bravery, and determination. Many Norse warriors and explorers bore this name, including Ollen Kjartansson, a renowned Icelandic chieftain who lived in the 11th century.
In the medieval period, the name Ollen also found its way into the annals of European nobility. One notable bearer of this name was Ollen of Saxony, a German nobleman who lived in the 12th century and played a significant role in the Crusades.
As the centuries passed, the name Ollen became less common in Europe, but it continued to be used in various parts of Scandinavia. In the 19th century, the Norwegian author and playwright Henrik Ibsen included a character named Ollen Lyngstrand in his play "The Pretenders."
Other notable historical figures named Ollen include Ollen Indrebo, a Norwegian linguist and scholar who lived from 1874 to 1932, and Ollen Tandberg, a Norwegian painter and illustrator born in 1842.
While the name Ollen is not as widely used today as it once was, it remains a part of the rich cultural heritage of the Norse and Germanic peoples, serving as a reminder of the valor and resilience of those who bore it in centuries past.
People
Ollen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ollen 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
Ollen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ollen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 67 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ollen 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 5,115,736 US residents.
Is Ollen a common name?
We classify Ollen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 302 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ollen most popular?
The single biggest year for Ollen was 1919, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ollen is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ollen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 151 people with the name Ollen, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #45,179 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 Ollen 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 Ollen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ollen leans strongly male. 144 people counted with this name were male (96.6%), compared with 5 female bearers (3.4%). 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 Ollen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ollen is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (18.5%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Ollen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ollen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (105 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 Ollen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ollen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ollen in the SSA data are male. 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 Ollen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ollen 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 Ollen 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 have the name Ollen?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.