Olivier

Olivier grows from Latin. Behind it stands oliva, the olive tree, and the whole Mediterranean world that cultivated it. French speakers took the Latin root and gave it the accent and the soft ending that mark the form we know as French.

The most famous bearer belongs to the eleventh century. In La Chanson de Roland, the oldest surviving work of French literature, Olivier is the level-headed friend of Roland, the one who counsels caution before the battle at Roncevaux. His name, tied to the olive, sat well beside a figure known for measured judgment.

In Poland the meaning reads plainly. It is drzewo oliwne, the olive tree. On a class register in a Polish school, Olivier now appears among boys who might otherwise be Jakub or Antoni.

The olive itself carried a sense of peace long before it became a first name, so the word behind Olivier had a reputation before any child answered to it. Say the name and you reach back to oliva, the tree that gave it life.