Olavi

Boys' name

Ancestor + remainder, through Óláfr

Olavi has been given to 41 babies in the U.S. since 1914. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1920, with 9 recorded.

Babies named Olavi, 1924

1 in 476,000

Olavi over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Olavi: meaning, origin, and history

Ancestor + remainder, through Óláfr

Finnish

What Olavi means

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

Origin, language, and formation

Olavi is used in Estonian and Finnish. Its origins include Finnish.

Olavi comes through Finnish Olavi.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Olavi and Óláfr.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Olavi is pronounced /ˈolɑʋi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 41 boys were recorded with the name Olavi between 1914 and 1924. Its highest annual count was 9 in 1920; its best national rank was #2,994 in 1915.

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 Olavi?

Olavi had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1924, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1924: 1 in 476,000; 5 of 2,381,562 births
Among boys only: 1 in 227,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1924: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 330,156 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Olavi 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 1924 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 330,156 children born in 1924 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Olavi. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Olavis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Olavi was born before 1920 — so the typical Olavi is around 105 today.

Median birth year: 1920; About 105 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 51.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 51.2% of all recorded uses (21).

Is Olavi 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: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1920 (9)
Years since peak: 105; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 36.3% average annual change
Best rank ever: #2,994; 1915

Spellings of Olavi

Olavi is not the most common spelling — Levi is, with 84.7% against Olavi's 0.02%.

Levi84.7%215,013
Omari5.2%13,158
Avi2.4%6,087
Ravi1.4%3,605
Flavio1.2%3,061
Olan1.1%2,732
Olaf1.00%2,531
Xavi0.98%2,486

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 Olavi is used

Across 1910–2025, Olavi was most concentrated in Massachusetts — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 848,760 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Massachusetts1 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. Olavi has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Olavi by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #2,994; 1915
Peak year: 1920; 9 that year
First recorded: 1914
Last recorded: 1924
All-time count: 41
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Olavi

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

Amavi Rhavi Aavi Olav Havi Zahavi Gavi Mavi Zavi Olajide Olanda Oland Tavi Olamide Omavi Olayinka Olawale Lavi Olalekan Oladapo Olas Taavi Olander Olatunde

Sibling names for Olavi

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

For a sister

Norine Vina Mozelle Marcelle Syble Adella Mittie Melvina

For a brother

Junius Dock Rupert Hilton Casimir Edd Noble Mckinley

Explore around Olavi

Top names of 1920, Olavi's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1915 Boys' names starting with O Estonian Boy Names Short Finnish Boy Names