ninan.org

Oliver

Boys' name · Current

Living in the US
~231,600 survival-weighted estimate
2025 rank
#3 among boys
Births in 2025
14,963 270,680 since 1880
Typical age
7 years, median

Oliver popularity over time

Oliver rank by birth year, 1880–2025Oliver ranked #69 in 1880 and #3 in 2025. Its best rank in the period was #3, in 2019.#10#100#318901920195019802010
Rank among US baby names by birth year, 1880–2025. Lower is more popular; the scale is logarithmic so the top of the chart is not compressed.

2024 is the peak year for Oliver, with 15,421 births. It is present from 1880, the first year of the record. Oliver has spent 37 years inside the national top 100.

The 2025 position is #3, on 14,963 births. Over ten years the count has risen 28%.

Babies named Oliver per yearPeaks at 15,421 births in 2024.15,421 in 2024018901920195019802010
Recorded US births by year. The peak is labelled; the axis starts at zero.

How many people are named Oliver?

An estimated 231,600 living Americans are called Oliver. SSA has recorded 270,680 births under the name since 1880.

This is a survival-weighted estimate, not a headcount: every recorded birth year is multiplied by the chance someone born that year is still alive, using the SSA period life table. How the estimate works.

How old is the average Oliver?

Median age among living Olivers: 7. The 2010s produced the largest surviving cohort. By the site’s era rules that makes Oliver a current name.

Your Oliver

Ages of living people named OliverHalf of living Olivers are older than 7 and half younger.median 7020406080100
Estimated living bearers by age today. Each bar is a birth year, weighted by the chance someone born then is still alive.

Where Oliver is most common

Vermont uses the name 3.6× as often as the country as a whole. Wyoming, Maine and Alaska follow.

Where Oliver is used more than average5 states use the name Oliver more than the national average.Alaska: 2.4× the national rateAKMaine: 2.6× the national rateMEVermont: 3.6× the national rateVTNew Hampshire: 2.3× the national rateNHWashington: not over-representedWAIdaho: not over-representedIDMontana: not over-representedMTNorth Dakota: not over-representedNDMinnesota: not over-representedMNIllinois: not over-representedILWisconsin: not over-representedWIMichigan: not over-representedMINew York: not over-representedNYOregon: not over-representedORNevada: not over-representedNVWyoming: 2.8× the national rateWYSouth Dakota: not over-representedSDIowa: not over-representedIAIndiana: not over-representedINOhio: not over-representedOHPennsylvania: not over-representedPANew Jersey: not over-representedNJConnecticut: not over-representedCTRhode Island: not over-representedRICalifornia: not over-representedCAUtah: not over-representedUTColorado: not over-representedCONebraska: not over-representedNEMissouri: not over-representedMOKentucky: not over-representedKYWest Virginia: not over-representedWVVirginia: not over-representedVAMaryland: not over-representedMDDelaware: not over-representedDEMassachusetts: not over-representedMAArizona: not over-representedAZNew Mexico: not over-representedNMKansas: not over-representedKSArkansas: not over-representedARTennessee: not over-representedTNNorth Carolina: not over-representedNCSouth Carolina: not over-representedSCDistrict of Columbia: not over-representedDCOklahoma: not over-representedOKLouisiana: not over-representedLAMississippi: not over-representedMSAlabama: not over-representedALGeorgia: not over-representedGAHawaii: not over-representedHITexas: not over-representedTXFlorida: not over-representedFL
Same as national3× or more
Location quotient, 2016–2025. Shaded states use the name more than the country does, relative to their own births. Exact figures are in the table below.
States where Oliver is over-represented, 2016–2025. The location quotient compares the state's share of the name with the national share.
StateBirthsvs national rate
Vermont 361 3.6×
Wyoming 262 2.8×
Maine 790 2.6×
Alaska 460 2.4×
New Hampshire 759 2.3×

Oliver in England and Wales

In England and Wales, Oliver ranked #6 in 2025 on 3,154 births. That is 25% lower than five years earlier.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Counts below three are suppressed by ONS.

Where the name Oliver comes from

Inherited from Middle English Oliver, from Old French Olivier, by folk etymology derived from the Latin name Olīvārius, but probably representing an Old High German form of Old Norse Óleifr (“ancestral + relic”) (modern Danish Olaf and Swedish Olof), or Proto-Germanic *ala- (“all”) + *wēraz (“true”) (modern Swedish allvar). Name of a paladin of Charlemagne in medieval French romance.

Etymology summarised from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wiktionary entry.

Notable people named Oliver

Ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions have an article about them — a measure of reach, not of importance.
NameKnown forYearsEditions
Oliver Cromwell English military and political leader 1599–1658 123
Oliver Stone American film director, screenwriter, and producer 1946 87
Oliver Kahn German association football player 1969 82
Oliver Goldsmith Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician (d. 1774) 1728–1774 81
Oliver Heaviside electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist 1850–1925 65
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. American poet and physician 1809–1894 63
Oliver E. Williamson American economist 1932–2020 59
Oliver Hardy American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy 1892–1957 58
Photo credits (7)

The sharpest rise. Births under this name jumped from 338 in 1911 to 653 in 1912 — 1.9 times over in a single year.

Birth records contain the rise and nothing about its cause. This site does not supply one.

People and dates from Wikidata (CC0), limited to those with an English Wikipedia article who are known by this name as their first name.

Related pages

Get this data

Every number on this page is available as JSON: /api/name/oliver.json. Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0).