Meaning and history
From Old French Olivier, perhaps from Latin oliva meaning “olive tree,” the name may also reflect an older Germanic source such as Old Norse Áleifr or Frankish Alawar, with its spelling influenced by the Latin word. It became widely known in medieval Western Europe through the French epic La Chanson de Roland, where Olivier is Roland’s friend and adviser. In England, Oliver was common in the Middle Ages but became rare after the 17th century, partly because of the association with the military commander Oliver Cromwell; it was revived in the 19th century, possibly helped by the title character of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1838), and grew very popular in the early 21st century, reaching first place for boys in England and Wales in 2009 and the U.S. top ten in 2017.
20062006: 2,352 births, rank #173
2007: 2,910 births, rank #140
2008: 3,604 births, rank #118
2009: 4,287 births, rank #98
2010: 4,666 births, rank #88
20112011: 5,414 births, rank #78
2012: 5,924 births, rank #73
2013: 7,276 births, rank #52
2014: 9,453 births, rank #32
2015: 11,670 births, rank #19
20162016: 13,066 births, rank #12
2017: 13,224 births, rank #10
2018: 13,500 births, rank #5
2019: 13,967 births, rank #3
2020: 14,277 births, rank #3
20212021: 14,713 births, rank #3
2022: 15,176 births, rank #3
2023: 14,792 births, rank #3
2024: 15,396 births, rank #3
20252025: 14,939 births, rank #3
Oliver has made a dramatic comeback. After first appearing in the US records in 1880, it fell to #472 by 1986, before climbing to #3 in 2025. Its highest annual birth count came in 2024, with 15,396 births.