Oliver

Boy name

Oliver has been given to 270,680 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It peaked in 2024 and currently ranks #3 for boys (2025).

Meaning & origin /ˈɑlɪvɚ/

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.

Origin: Germanic languages

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Popularity over time births per year, 1880–2025

Hover or tap the chart to read any year.

Total babies

270,680

Peak year

2024 (15,421 babies)

Rank in 2025

#3 for boys

First recorded

1880

10-year trend

▲ +28%

Gender split

0% girls / 100% boys

Famous people named Oliver

Oliver Cromwell

English military and political leader (1599–1658)

Oliver Kahn

German association football player (born 1969)

Oliver Goldsmith

Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician (d. 1774)

Oliver Heaviside

Electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist (1850–1925)

Notability data from Wikidata (CC0).

Names with a similar vibe

Same primary gender, peaked around the same years, and roughly as common as Oliver.

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