Olaf
Olaf reached its high-water mark in 1916 at number 662, and has been recorded 2,531 times in all. In 2025 it ranked 12,008th. About 930 Olafs are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 45.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Olaf
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 2,531
- Estimated living today
- 930
- Median age today
- 45
- Peak year
- 1916
- Best rank
- 662nd
- Rank in 2025
- 12,008th
- First recorded
- 1880
How old the living Olafs are
born that year still alive today
Of the 2,531 babies given the name since 1880, about 930 are alive — 37 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1980 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Old Norse
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Olafs
- Olaf Scholz (born 1958)German politician (SPD), ninth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (2021–2025), Member of the Bundestag
- Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950)British novelist and philosopher
- Olaf II of Norway (995–1030)King of Norway from 1015 to 1028
- Olaf I of Norway (960–1000)King of Norway
- Olaf II of Denmark (1370–1387)King of Denmark and Norway
- Olaf Thon (born 1966)German association football player and manager
- Olaf III of Norway (1050–1093)King of Norway
- Olaf I of Denmark (1050–1095)King of Denmark
People named Olaf with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Olaf is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Olaf is most concentrated in North Dakota (81.5×), Minnesota (16.4×), Wisconsin (3.1×), New York (1.9×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1916
The most popular boys’ names the year Olaf peaked:
Olaf elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland boys | Olaf | 17,294 birth registrations | 48th |
| Norway boys | Olaf | 1,817 | 85th |
| England and Wales boys | Olaf | 764 | 506th |
| France boys | Olaf | 170 | 6,306th |
| Ireland boys | Olaf | 143 | 301st |
| Belgium boys | Olaf | 135 | 798th |
| Scotland boys | Olaf | 65 | 399th |
| Northern Ireland boys | Olaf | 7 | 363rd |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Olaf: rank by region
In 2021, Olaf was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Olaf | 882 | 5 |
In 2025, Olaf was given 2 times or more in 16 regions of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dolnośląskie | Olaf | 97 | 14 |
| Kujawsko-Pomorskie | Olaf | 78 | 13 |
| Lubelskie | Olaf | 85 | 7 |
| Lubuskie | Olaf | 47 | 14 |
| Łódzkie | Olaf | 64 | 20 |
| Małopolskie | Olaf | 87 | 22 |
| Mazowieckie | Olaf | 80 | 42 |
| Opolskie | Olaf | 87 | 5 |
| Podkarpackie | Olaf | 60 | 20 |
| Podlaskie | Olaf | 69 | 8 |
| Pomorskie | Olaf | 61 | 34 |
| Śląskie | Olaf | 62 | 41 |
| Świętokrzyskie | Olaf | 58 | 8 |
| Warmińsko-Mazurskie | Olaf | 47 | 18 |
| Wielkopolskie | Olaf | 60 | 40 |
| Zachodniopomorskie | Olaf | 79 | 11 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Olaf by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 2 | 580th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Olaf among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| the Netherlands boys | Olaf | 4,702 | 6,774 |
| Finland boys | Olaf | 21 | 74 |
| the Netherlands girls | Olaf | — | 17 |
A count of people on a register – the Netherlands on 1 January 2018, Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Olaf lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 276 men called Olaf were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palmas, Las | Olaf | 24 | 0.041 | 1,834 |
| Balears, Illes | Olaf | 25 | 0.040 | 1,431 |
| Girona | Olaf | 12 | 0.029 | 1,868 |
| Lleida | Olaf | 6 | 0.025 | 2,057 |
| Alicante/Alacant | Olaf | 24 | 0.024 | 2,344 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Olaf | 12 | 0.023 | 3,013 |
Listed in 15 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 37 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Olaf against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.