Olive
Meaning of Olive
Olive comes from the name of the olive tree and its fruit; the word goes back to Latin oliva. The olive branch has long been a symbol of peace. Olive is pronounced OH-liv.
Notable namesakes include South African author Olive Schreiner, who wrote The Story of an African Farm, and aviation pioneer Olive Ann Beech, cofounder of Beech Aircraft. In fiction, Olive Oyl is Popeye's sweetheart, and Olive Kitteridge is the title character of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
In the United States, Olive reached its highest rank, 82nd, in 1893, then faded until only 6 babies were given the name in 1988. It has since made a strong comeback: 1,836 babies were named Olive in 2022, the most in any year, and it ranked 197th in 2025.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as OH-liv (/ˈəʊlɪv/)
American English
- Pronunced as OH-liv (/ˈoʊlɪv/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Olive
| Olive Elaine Morris was a Jamaican born British activist who in the 1970s led feminist, black liberation, and squatters rights campaigns, joined the British Black Panthers, and cofounded the Brixton Black Womens Group and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent. |
| Olive Schreiner was a South African author and anti war activist best known for The Story of an African Farm, a groundbreaking novel on belief, independence, female ambition, and frontier life. |
| Olive Ann Oatman was an American teenager enslaved and later freed by Native Americans in the Mojave Desert who went on to lecture about her experiences. |
| Olive Marjorie Senior is a Toronto-based Jamaican poet and writer, winner of the Musgrave Gold Medal and OCM Bocas Prize, and Poet Laureate of Jamaica from 2021 to 2024. |
| Olive Ann Beech, an American aerospace pioneer, cofounded Beech Aircraft with her husband Walter in 1932, later serving as president and chairwoman and becoming the most honored woman in aviation, known as the First Lady of Aviation. |
| Mary Olive Byrne, known as Olive Richard, was the live in partner of William Moulton Marston and Elizabeth Holloway Marston and is credited as an inspiration for Wonder Woman. |
| Olive Patricia Dickason was a Metis historian and journalist, the first in Canada to earn a PhD in Indigenous history, and a pioneering author on First Nations. |
| Olive Higgins Prouty was an American novelist and poet best known for Stella Dallas and for exploring psychotherapy in Now Voyager. |
| Olive Muriel Pink was an Australian botanical illustrator and anthropologist who championed Aboriginal rights and spent much of her life in Central Australia. |
| Olive Eleanor Custance, known as Lady Alfred Douglas, was an English poet of the 1890s aesthetic movement, a Yellow Book contributor, and the wife of Lord Alfred Douglas. |
| Olive Fremstad was the stage name of Anna Olivia Rundquist, a celebrated Swedish American dramatic soprano who sang both mezzo soprano and soprano. |
