Humanverse

Olla vs Ollie

American parents have registered 59,267 Ollies since 1880, against 552 Ollas. Ollie is still ahead, with 287 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Olla against Ollie, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Olla Ollie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Ollie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1914, when Olla had 23 and Ollie had 997.

Side by side

  Olla Ollie
Total US births 55259,267
Most in one year 251,345
Babies in 2025 under 5287
Estimated living today 7014,000
Median age today 8067
Peak year 19211919
Best rank 1,723rd girls195th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,276th
First recorded 18861880
Girls / boys 552 / 041,641 / 17,626

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Ollas alive today are over 80; half the Ollies are over 67. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Olla and Ollie.