Olga
Around 61,000 Polish women carry it, but the name is fading year by year: fewer newborn girls now than a generation ago. Olga is the East Slavic form of an old name meaning "holy", carried south to the Rus by Norse traders as Helga.
Olga Pronunciation
Olga is pronounced OL-gah (/ˈɔlga/).
What Olga means
Where Olga comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Olga is the East Slavic form of a name that means holy, and it reached the Slavs by an unusual road. The Varangians, Norse traders and warriors who settled along the rivers of the Rus, carried the name Helga south. Among the Slavs it settled into Olga, and the sense of holy, in Polish święta, travelled with it.
The first Olga to fill the history books ruled Kiev in the tenth century. After her husband died, she governed as regent, then accepted Christian baptism in Constantinople and was later made a saint. So the word holy and the name grew close over her lifetime.
Volha is the Belarusian twin. Anyone tracing a family across the old eastern borderlands should know both spellings. In Poland the name keeps its imieniny in July, and you will still find an Olga on a school register, filed among the O names, meaning holy.
When Olga celebrates name day
Olga appears 4 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 11 July.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Olga
1 in 368 women in Poland is named Olga. 61,318 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #163 among female names.
Olga's popularity over time
120 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #236 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #163 name among living women, even as it slips to #236 among newborns.
Where parents choose Olga
Olga is most popular in Greater Poland, 89% above the national average (367 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+87%) and Lesser Poland (+20%). It is least common in Łódź and West Pomeranian, 45% and 42% below average respectively.
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Greater Poland
+89%1 in 586 babies
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian
+87%1 in 591 babies
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Lesser Poland
+20%1 in 926 babies
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Łódź
−45%1 in 2,011 babies
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West Pomeranian
−42%1 in 1,919 babies
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Opole
−40%1 in 1,844 babies
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Greater Poland+89% 367 born1 in 586 babies+89%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian+87% 185 born1 in 591 babies+87%
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Lesser Poland+20% 245 born1 in 926 babies+20%
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Pomeranian+16% 154 born1 in 957 babies+16%
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Podlaskie+11% 66 born1 in 997 babies+11%
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Silesian+7% 220 born1 in 1,034 babies+7%
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Subcarpathian−13% 95 born1 in 1,269 babies−13%
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Warmian-Masurian−17% 54 born1 in 1,330 babies−17%
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Lublin−22% 72 born1 in 1,426 babies−22%
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Lubusz−22% 35 born1 in 1,419 babies−22%
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Lower Silesian−29% 101 born1 in 1,556 babies−29%
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Masovian−39% 195 born1 in 1,817 babies−39%
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Opole−40% 25 born1 in 1,844 babies−40%
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Holy Cross−40% 30 born1 in 1,848 babies−40%
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West Pomeranian−42% 44 born1 in 1,919 babies−42%
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Łódź−45% 63 born1 in 2,011 babies−45%
Olga as a middle name
Olga is a first name for 61,318 women in Poland and a middle name for another 16,119, a 79/21 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 93rd, between Bernadeta (16,482) and Anastazja (16,036).