Olympia
Connected to Mount Olympus, dwelling of the Greek gods.
Name Census estimates that about 2,269 living Americans carry the first name Olympia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Olympia today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Olympia births was 1981 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Olympia. 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 Olympia with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,060 Americans
Peak year
1981
104 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,473
Tracked since 1897
Census
Olympia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,432 people with the first name Olympia, which placed it at #6,562 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
#6,562
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,432 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Olympia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olympia is White at 43.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.2%) and Black (22.8%). 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 Olympia 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 Olympia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.5% · 1,058
- Hispanic or Latino24.2% · 588
- Black or African American22.8% · 555
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 125
- Two or more races4.1% · 100
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 6
Popularity
Olympia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Olympia from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 477 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Olympia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Olympia 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 Olympia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Olympias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. New York, California, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Olympia, while Virginia, Utah, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 72 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Olympia
The name Olympia has its origins in ancient Greek culture and language. It is derived from the Greek word "Olympos," which refers to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and the mythological home of the Greek gods. The name is closely associated with the Olympic Games, which were held in ancient Greece in honor of Zeus and the Olympian gods.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Olympia comes from the ancient Greek city of the same name, located in the western Peloponnese region. Olympia was a major religious and athletic center, hosting the Olympic Games every four years from the 8th century BC until the 4th century AD. The name was likely given to the city due to its proximity to Mount Olympus and its importance in the Olympic tradition.
In ancient Greek mythology, Olympia was also the name of one of the Nereids, the sea nymph daughters of the god Nereus. According to legend, she was one of the fifty Nereids who attended the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Olympia. One of the earliest was Olympia of Epirus, a princess of the ancient Greek kingdom of Epirus who lived in the 4th century BC. She was the daughter of King Pyrrhus and became the wife of King Demetrius I of Macedonia.
Another famous Olympia was Olympia Fulvia Morata (1526-1555), an Italian Renaissance scholar and Protestant reformer. She was renowned for her exceptional knowledge of classical languages and her contribution to the Protestant Reformation in Italy.
In the realm of art, Olympia is also the name of a famous painting by the French artist Édouard Manet, completed in 1863. The painting, which depicts a reclining nude woman attended by a servant, caused a scandal when it was first exhibited but is now considered a masterpiece of modern art.
Other notable figures named Olympia include Olympia Brown (1835-1926), an American minister and activist who was one of the first women ordained in the United States, and Olympia Dukakis (1931-2021), an Academy Award-winning American actress best known for her role in the film "Moonstruck."
People
Olympia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Olympia 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
Olympia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Olympia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,269 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Olympia 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 151,060 US residents.
Is Olympia a common name?
We classify Olympia as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,560 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Olympia most popular?
The single biggest year for Olympia was 1981, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Olympia is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Olympia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,432 people with the name Olympia, or 0.81 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,562 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 Olympia 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 Olympia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Olympia appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,426 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Olympia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Olympia is White at 43.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (24.2%) and Black (22.8%). 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 Olympia most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Olympia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.5% (1,058 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 Olympia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Olympia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Olympia 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 Olympia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Olympia 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 Olympia 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 called Olympia?
Find out how many people share the name Olympia on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.