Olive
The story
Olive is the tree of peace worn as a name, and its curve is one of the deepest resurrections in our records. A century ago it was everywhere: about 12,500 girls in the 1910s, 11,000 in the 1920s. Then the fall, slow and then total, down to 94 girls in all of the 1980s, a name effectively extinct. The return ran 141, then 1,600, then 10,700 in the 2010s, with 10,000 so far this decade. Olive is not a nickname for Olivia; the two are parallel names from the same Latin tree, and Olivia's long reign almost certainly reintroduced the sound while Olive kept the quieter, greener half of it. In our records it goes to girls about 63,500 to 380. Liv and Ollie do the everyday work. The branch has meant peace for thousands of years; the name just needed two generations to rest.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Olive peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
235 people · the #22,666 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 1,000,000 · median age 4
Among people named Olive living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 101 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Olive
Most people given the name Olive in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Olive deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Olive truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Olive fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Olive · Nicknames for Olive · Middle names for Olive
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