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Olaf

#13,365 in 2025Boys' name

Ancestor + remainder, through Óláfr

Olaf has been given to 2,531 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #13,365 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1916, with 79 recorded.

Babies named Olaf, 2025

1 in 663,000

Olaf over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Olaf: meaning, origin, and history

Ancestor + remainder, through Óláfr

Old Norse

What Olaf means

Olaf belongs to the name family reached through Olaf → Óláfr. Its meaning is “ancestor + remainder”.

Origin, language, and formation

Olaf is used in English, Danish, German, Norwegian, Old Swedish and Polish. Its origins include Old Norse.

Olaf comes through Old Norse Óláfr.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Olav and Óláfr.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Olaf is pronounced /ˈəʊl.əf/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,531 boys were recorded with the name Olaf between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 79 in 1916; its best national rank was #393 in 1885.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #10,296 in 2020 to #13,365 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,216 in 2015 to #13,365 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Olaf?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#13,365
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Olaf sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Olaf. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Olafs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Olaf was born before 1930 — so the typical Olaf is around 95 today.

Median birth year
1930
About 95 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
19.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
11.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
947
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 19.8% of all recorded uses (501).

Is Olaf rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+328
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,069
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−8,149
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.28×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
6.3%
Peak was 1916 (79)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#393
1885

Spellings of Olaf

Olaf is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 50.9% against Olaf's 0.35%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Olaf is used

Across 1910–2025, Olaf was most concentrated in North Dakota — about 1 in 5,263 boys, against 1 in 129,361 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

019 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1North Dakota1 in 5,263
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 25,000
  3. 3Montana1 in 100,000
  4. 4Wisconsin1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Iowa1 in —
  7. 7Illinois1 in —
  8. 8New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Olaf has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Olaf around the world

Where Olaf ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2004–2025
    #2,440
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2007–2023
    #728
    in 2023
  • Northern Ireland
    2011–2017
    #363
    in 2017
  • Ireland
    2007–2022
    #779
    in 2022
  • France
    1944–2025
    #6,306
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #274
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1958–1963
    #379
    in 1963

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Olaf

People whose public names include Olaf, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Olaf in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Olaf. Linked forms have their own page here.

OlavOlofOlufOlaviOlaoOlawOlovOlausOliffÓleifur

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Olaf by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#13,365
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,069
Best rank ever
#393
1885
Peak year
1916
79 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,531
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Olaf

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

OlanOlaOlandoOlandOlajuwonOlamideOlavOlandaOlaviOlanderOlawaleOlaoluwaOlasOlajideOlayinkaOlalekanOladapoOlatundeOlajawonOlanrewajuOladimejiOladayoOlajuwanOlabode

Names with a curve like Olaf

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Olaf, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

WashingtonGustavNatLudwigErnstAlmaAdelbertGustaveAllieAbeVivianGerhard

Sibling names for Olaf

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Olaf

Top names of 1916, Olaf's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1885Boys' names starting with OViking Boy Names