Ollie
A diminutive form of Oliver, derived from the Old French name meaning "olive tree".
Name Census estimates that about 13,149 living Americans carry the first name Ollie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 70.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Ollie today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ollie births was 1919 (1,345 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ollie. 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 Ollie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ollie was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,067 Americans
Peak year
1919
1,345 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,044
Tracked since 1880
Census
Ollie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,649 people with the first name Ollie, which placed it at #2,239 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
#2,239
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,649 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ollie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ollie is Black at 47.9%. The next largest groups are White (44.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Ollie 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 Ollie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.9% · 5,575
- White44.2% · 5,148
- Two or more races3.5% · 405
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 326
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 98
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 97
Gender
Gender distribution for Ollie
Ollie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 58,974 total registrations, 17,414 (29.5%) were male and 41,560 (70.5%) were female.
Ollie as a male name
- Ranked #1,044 in 2024
- 211 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (369 births)
Ollie as a female name
- Ranked #2,256 in 2024
- 83 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (976 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ollie on both sides of the split. Of the 11,653 people counted with this name, 4,714 were male (40.5%) and 6,939 were female (59.5%).
Popularity
Ollie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ollie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 11,133 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
Ollie 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 Ollie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ollies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Texas, Mississippi, Alabama recorded the most babies named Ollie, while Nevada, Idaho, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 989 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ollie
The name Ollie is a diminutive form of the male given name Oliver, which has its roots in the Old French and Old German languages. The name Oliver is derived from the Old German name Alfihar, which is a compound of the elements "alf" meaning "elf" and "hari" meaning "army" or "warrior." Therefore, the name Ollie can be interpreted as "the elf warrior" or "the elf soldier."
In the Middle Ages, the name Oliver gained popularity across Europe, particularly in France and England. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Old French epic poem "La Chanson de Roland" (The Song of Roland), written in the late 11th century. In this literary work, Oliver is depicted as a brave and loyal knight who fights alongside the legendary hero Roland.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Oliver or its diminutive form, Ollie. One of the most famous was Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), an English military and political leader who played a significant role in the English Civil War and served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Another prominent Ollie was Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894), an American physician, poet, and author, best known for his literary works such as "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" and "The Deacon's Masterpiece."
In the world of sports, Ollie Matson (1930-2011) was an American professional football player who excelled as a running back and kick returner for various teams, including the Chicago Cardinals and the Los Angeles Rams.
Moving to the realm of entertainment, Ollie Johnston (1912-2008) was a renowned American animator and one of the core animators at Walt Disney Studios, known for his work on classic films like "Bambi," "Cinderella," and "The Jungle Book."
Lastly, Ollie Reed (1938-1999) was an English actor known for his intense and often controversial roles in films like "Women in Love," "The Devils," and "Castaway."
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who have carried the name Ollie, a diminutive form with a rich heritage and a connection to the idea of a brave and valiant warrior.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ollie
People
Ollie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ollie 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
Ollie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ollie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,149 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ollie 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 26,067 US residents.
Is Ollie a common name?
We classify Ollie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 58,974 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ollie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ollie was 1919, when 1,345 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ollie is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ollie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,649 people with the name Ollie, or 3.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,239 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 Ollie 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 Ollie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ollie on both sides of the split. Of the 11,653 people counted with this name, 4,714 were male (40.5%) and 6,939 were female (59.5%). 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 Ollie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ollie is Black at 47.9%. The next largest groups are White (44.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Ollie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ollie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.9% (5,575 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 Ollie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ollie a female name?
Yes, 70.5% of people registered as Ollie 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 Ollie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ollie 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 Ollie 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 share the name Ollie?
Want to know how many people share the name Ollie? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.