Olga
Of Slavic origin, a feminine name meaning "holy" or "blessed".
Name Census estimates that about 20,915 living Americans carry the first name Olga. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Olga today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Olga births was 1918 (1,691 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Olga. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Olga with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Olga is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 198 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Olga have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,388 Americans
Peak year
1918
1,691 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
1990 SSA rank
#3,309
Tracked since 1880
Census
Olga in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 101,652 people with the first name Olga, which placed it at #548 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
#548
National first-name rank
People counted
102K
101,652 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
33.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
65.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Olga
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olga is Hispanic at 65.0%. The next largest groups are White (31.9%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Olga 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 Olga at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino65.0% · 66,111
- White31.9% · 32,437
- Black or African American1.8% · 1,869
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 687
- Two or more races0.4% · 387
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 161
Gender
Gender distribution for Olga
Out of the 62,015 babies given the name Olga since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Olga as a male name
- Ranked #9,105 in 1990
- 5 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1929 (10 births)
Olga as a female name
- Ranked #3,309 in 2024
- 48 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (1,691 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olga appears almost entirely female. Of the 101,653 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Olga: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Olga from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 12,837 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Olga 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 Olga during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Olgas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. Texas, New York, California recorded the most babies named Olga, while Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,018 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Olga
The name Olga has its origins in the Old Norse language and is derived from the word "Helga", which means "holy" or "blessed". It was a popular name among the Vikings and was later adopted by the Slavic populations of Eastern Europe.
In the 10th century, the name Olga gained prominence when it was borne by the Grand Princess of Kievan Rus, Olga of Kiev (c. 890-969). She was the first ruler of Kievan Rus to convert to Christianity and is revered as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
The name Olga is also mentioned in the Russian Primary Chronicle, a historical record of the early East Slavic state. It recounts the life of Princess Olga and her role in the Christianization of Kievan Rus.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Olga can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, where it appears as Helga. It was a common name among the Norse and Viking settlers in Iceland and Scandinavia.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Olga, including Olga Konstantinovna Romanova (1851-1926), a Russian Grand Duchess and the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I. Another famous Olga was Olga Nikolaevna Romanova (1895-1918), the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, who was executed along with her family during the Russian Revolution.
In the arts, Olga Knipper-Chekhova (1868-1959) was a celebrated Russian actress and the wife of the playwright Anton Chekhov. Olga Picasso (1889-1955) was a Russian-born French painter and the first wife of the renowned artist Pablo Picasso.
Olga Rudge (1895-1996) was an American violinist and the longtime companion of the composer Ezra Pound. Olga Lepeshinskaya (1916-2008) was a prominent Soviet ballerina and choreographer who helped shape the Soviet ballet tradition.
People
Olga + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Olga 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
Olga: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Olga?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,915 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Olga 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 16,388 US residents.
Is Olga a common name?
We classify Olga as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 62,015 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Olga most popular?
The single biggest year for Olga was 1918, when 1,691 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Olga is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Olga in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 101,652 people with the name Olga, or 33.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #548 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 Olga 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 Olga?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olga appears almost entirely female. Of the 101,653 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Olga?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olga is Hispanic at 65.0%. The next largest groups are White (31.9%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Olga most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Olga in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.0% (66,111 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 Olga in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Olga a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Olga 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 Olga still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Olga 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 Olga 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 people are named Olga?
Find out how many Americans are named Olga on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.