Olga
Where Olga comes from
Borrowed in the 19th century from Old East Slavic О́льга (Ólĭga), name of a Kievan knyaginya (Saint Olga of Kiev), a medieval form of Helga, Old Norse heilagr (“holy; inviolable, sacred”). Doublet of Helga.
- Russian
- 2 syllables
- Vowel-ended
Along the way
- 1880First SSA yearAlready #215 among girls — 50 babies in the first year on record.
- 1916Peak, #1261,685 babies named Olga — more than any year before or since.
- 1930The fadeThe first year with half the peak's births — down to #221.
- 1962Olga Tokarczuk bornPolish writer and activist
- 1979Olga Kurylenko bornUkrainian-French actress and model
In the dictionary
- A female given name from Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian.
Namesakes
- Olga Tokarczuk · Polish writer and activist, born 1962
- Olga Kurylenko · Ukrainian-French actress and model, born 1979
- Olga of Kiev · princess of Kiev, Orthodox saint, 890–969
- Olga Korbut · Belarusian gymnast (*1955), born 1955
- Olga Constantinovna of Russia · Queen of the Hellenes, 1851–1926
Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.