Olana
A Basque feminine name meaning "welcome" or "kind hostess".
Name Census estimates that about 94 living Americans carry the first name Olana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Olana today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Olana births was 2021 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Olana. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Olana. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
94
~ 1 in 3,646,323 Americans
Peak year
2021
10 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,781
Tracked since 2009
Census
Olana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 169 people with the first name Olana, which placed it at #42,487 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#42,487
National first-name rank
People counted
169
169 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
40.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Olana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olana is Black at 40.2%. The next largest groups are White (30.8%) and Hispanic (13.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Olana described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Olana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American40.2% · 68
- White30.8% · 52
- Hispanic or Latino13.0% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.7% · 13
- Two or more races6.5% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 3
Popularity
Olana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Olana from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 51 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Olana remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Olana 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 Olana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Olana
The name Olana is believed to have its origins in the Hawaiian language and culture. It is derived from the Hawaiian word 'olana', which means 'life' or 'to flourish'. The name is thought to have been in use as early as the 18th century in Hawaii.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Olana was in the late 18th century, when it was the name of a Hawaiian chieftain's daughter. This chieftain, whose name is not known, was a prominent figure in the Hawaiian islands during that time period.
In the 19th century, the name Olana gained some prominence in the United States. One notable person with this name was Olana Bartlett Fowler (1848-1922), an American educator and administrator who served as the first president of the Michigan State Industrial Home for Girls.
Another historical figure with the name Olana was Olana Janssen (1856-1930), a Dutch-American painter and artist who was known for her portraits and landscape paintings. She lived and worked in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the early 20th century, Olana Hickox (1887-1967) was an American writer and poet who published several books of poetry and was a member of the Poetry Society of America.
A more recent historical figure with the name Olana was Olana Canavarro (1920-2005), a Brazilian writer and journalist who wrote several novels and short stories during her career.
While the name Olana has its roots in Hawaiian culture, it has been used by people of various ethnicities and backgrounds throughout history. Its meaning of 'life' or 'to flourish' has likely contributed to its appeal as a given name.
People
Olana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Olana 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
Olana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Olana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 94 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Olana 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 3,646,323 US residents.
Is Olana a common name?
We classify Olana as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 95 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Olana most popular?
The single biggest year for Olana was 2021, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Olana is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Olana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 169 people with the name Olana, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,487 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Olana in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Olana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olana leans strongly female. 147 people counted with this name were female (87.0%), compared with 22 male bearers (13.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Olana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olana is Black at 40.2%. The next largest groups are White (30.8%) and Hispanic (13.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Olana most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Olana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.2% (68 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Olana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Olana a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Olana 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.
Is Olana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Olana in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Olana can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many Americans are named Olana?
See how many Americans are named Olana on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.