Baby Names:

Olivia

Meaning: Olive tree

Origin: Latin

Alternate spellings: Livia, Oliveah, Alivia, Alyvia, Olive, Oliva

Olivia may come from a Latin word that means “olive tree,” but Shakespeare may very well have made the name up just to use it in his play Twelfth Night. And today’s parents, it seems, are all Shakespeare fans; after enjoying only modest popularity for most of the twentieth century, Olivia made a serious climb to the top 10 in 2001 has stayed up there since. Too popular for you? Try Olive, a top 100 name at the end of the 1800s that’s only #588 today, or Italian Oliva, which hasn’t seen the charts since 1894.