Olympia
Connected to Mount Olympus, dwelling of the Greek gods.
Name Census estimates that about 2,269 living Americans carry the first name Olympia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Olympia today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Olympia births was 1981 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Olympia. 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.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,060 Americans
Peak year
1981
104 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,473
Tracked since 1897
Popularity
Olympia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Olympia from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 477 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Olympia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Olympia 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 Olympia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Olympias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. New York, California, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Olympia, while Virginia, Utah, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 72 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Olympia
The name Olympia has its origins in ancient Greek culture and language. It is derived from the Greek word "Olympos," which refers to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and the mythological home of the Greek gods. The name is closely associated with the Olympic Games, which were held in ancient Greece in honor of Zeus and the Olympian gods.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Olympia comes from the ancient Greek city of the same name, located in the western Peloponnese region. Olympia was a major religious and athletic center, hosting the Olympic Games every four years from the 8th century BC until the 4th century AD. The name was likely given to the city due to its proximity to Mount Olympus and its importance in the Olympic tradition.
In ancient Greek mythology, Olympia was also the name of one of the Nereids, the sea nymph daughters of the god Nereus. According to legend, she was one of the fifty Nereids who attended the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Olympia. One of the earliest was Olympia of Epirus, a princess of the ancient Greek kingdom of Epirus who lived in the 4th century BC. She was the daughter of King Pyrrhus and became the wife of King Demetrius I of Macedonia.
Another famous Olympia was Olympia Fulvia Morata (1526-1555), an Italian Renaissance scholar and Protestant reformer. She was renowned for her exceptional knowledge of classical languages and her contribution to the Protestant Reformation in Italy.
In the realm of art, Olympia is also the name of a famous painting by the French artist Édouard Manet, completed in 1863. The painting, which depicts a reclining nude woman attended by a servant, caused a scandal when it was first exhibited but is now considered a masterpiece of modern art.
Other notable figures named Olympia include Olympia Brown (1835-1926), an American minister and activist who was one of the first women ordained in the United States, and Olympia Dukakis (1931-2021), an Academy Award-winning American actress best known for her role in the film "Moonstruck."
People
Olympia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Olympia 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
Olympia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Olympia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,269 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Olympia 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 151,060 US residents.
Is Olympia a common name?
We classify Olympia as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,560 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Olympia most popular?
The single biggest year for Olympia was 1981, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Olympia is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Olympia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Olympia 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.
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.