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Olive
	Ancient Roman woman wearing a garland of olives in a fresco from Herculaneum.
Gender	Feminine
Origin
Word/name	English
Meaning	olive tree
Other names
Related names	Oliver, Olivia

Olive is a feminine given name of English origin meaning olive tree. ^[1] The name is associated with peace because of the symbolism of the olive branch. An olive wreath has traditionally been worn by champions as a symbol of victory.^[2] It has also been seen as a symbol of fruitfulness.^[3]

Popularity

Olive came into fashion in English-speaking countries in the 1800s along with other tree, plant and flower names for girls^[3] and was a more popular name during that era than the related Olivia, which has been among the most popular names for girls in recent years. Olive was among the top hundred names for girls in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s and remained among the top one thousand names through 1950. The name declined in popularity in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Its increase in usage in the early twenty-first century has coincided with the popularity of Olivia. It also increased in popularity after the release of the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine and the 2010 film Easy A, both of which featured a lead character named Olive.^[4] In the film Easy A, Olive is said to be an anagram of the words “I love.” ^[5] Author Laura Wattenberg notes that the name is “aggressively contrarian” and atypical of the style of names that have been popular in recent years but its counterculture style might explain its increase in usage.^[6]

Olive has again been among the top one thousand names for newborn American girls since 2007, among the top three hundred names for girls since 2012 and among the top two hundred most popular names for American girls since 2020.

Olive also ranked among the top 150 names for newborn girls in Canada in 2023.^[7]

Olive has been similarly popular in England and Wales, where it has been among the top five hundred names for girls since 2008 and was among the hundred most popular names for girls in 2020.^[8] ^[9]

People

Given name

Olive (martyr) (Blessed Olive), a Catholic martyr from Italy
Olive, Lady Baillie (1899–1974), Anglo-American heiress, landowner and hostess
Olive Ayhens (born 1943)
Olive Beamish (1890–1978), Irish born suffragette, used pseudonym 'Phyllis Brady' when arrested and force-fed
Olive Checkland (1920–2004), English historian and writer
Olive Cook (1912–2002), British writer and artist
Olive E. Dana (1859-1904), American author
Olive Dehn (1914–2007), English children's writer and poet
Olive Dutton Green (1878–1930), Australian artist
Olive Edmundson, British horticulturalist
Olive Fremstad (1871–1951), Swedish-American opera singer
Olive Fitzhardinge (1881–1956), Australian rose breeder
Olive Stott Gabriel (1872–1944), American activist, clubwoman, and lawyer
Olive Hirst (1912–1994), English advertising agent
Olive Morris (1952–1979), British community leader and activist
Olive Osmond (1925–2004) was the matriarch of the American Osmond singing family
Olive Thomas by Raphael Kirchner
Olive Pink (1884–1975), Australian botanical illustrator and activist for Aboriginal rights
Olive Sagapolu (born 1997), American football player
Olive Sanxay (1873-1965), American poet
Olive Schreiner (1855–1920), South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual
Olive Senior (born 1941), Jamaican poet
Olive Smith (masseuse) (1880-1916), British masseuse physical training instructor, Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in World War I
Olive Thomas (1894-1920), American silent-film actress, art model, and photo model
Olive Webb, New Zealand clinical psychologist
Olive Young (actress) (1903–1940), Chinese-American actress
Olive Zorian (1916–1965), English violinist

Surname

Fernand Olive (1891-1949), French general
Jean-Baptiste Olive (1848–1936), French painter
Milton L. Olive, III (1946–1965), United States Army soldier during the Vietnam War
Rich Olive (1949–2016), American politician

Fictional characters

Olive Oyl has been a popular cartoon character
Olive, heroine of Olive, the Other Reindeer, an animated Christmas special
Olive, The Bash St. Kids' school cook
Olive Doyle, a main character from the show A.N.T. Farm
Olive, a main character from the show Elinor Wonders Why
Olive Kitteridge, the title character of a novel by Elizabeth Strout
Agent Olive, from the show Odd Squad in Season 1
Olive Hoover, a main character in the film Little Miss Sunshine
Olive Hornby, a minor character important to the backstory of Harry Potter character Moaning Myrtle
Olive Ostrovsky, a main character from the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Olive Oyl, Popeye's girlfriend
Olive Penderghast, the protagonist of the 2010 film Easy A
Olive Rozalski, a main character from the 2019 TV show Sydney to the Max
Olive Rudge, from the 1969 TV show On the Buses
Olive Snook, from the 2007 TV show Pushing Daisies
Olive Stone, from the 2018 TV show Manifest
Olive, a main character from the 2011 TV show Justin Time

Notes

^ "Meaning, origin and history of the name Olive".
^ "Olive - Baby Name Meaning, Origin, and Popularity".
^ ^a ^b Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 210. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
^ Sandel, Abby (8 October 2012). "Olive: Baby Name of the Day". appellationmountain.net. Appellation Mountain (blog). Retrieved 21 May 2022.
^ "20 things you probably didn't know about 'Easy A'". Insider.com.
^ Wattenberg, Laura (2018). The Baby Name Wizard, 2019 Revised 4th Edition: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby. Harmony Books. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-7704-3647-6.
^ https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710014701&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2022&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=20220101%2C20220101
^ "Popularity for the name Olive - Behind the Name". www.behindthename.com.
^ "Popular Baby Names". Archived from the original on 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2022-03-31.

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