Olav
Fewer than 60 people in Poland carry it, all men, so most Poles have never met one. A Germanic name tied to Scandinavia, meaning "ancestor's descendant".
Olav Pronunciation
What Olav means
Where Olav comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Olav is a Germanic name from the North. It goes back to Old Norse Áleifr, an older Anleifr, built from anu, "ancestor," and leifr, "heir" or "descendant." The plain sense reads as ancestor's descendant, the one who takes up a family line.
The name belongs to Scandinavia. Its most documented bearer is Saint Olaf II Haraldsson, king of Norway, killed at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Norway still keeps Olsok on 29 July, the day of his death, and the name became a fixture across the Nordic kingdoms after him.
In a Polish class register Olav would sit apart, with no home-grown diminutive and no cross-gender variant beside it. That bareness fits the word. Stripped to its parts, it still says ancestor's descendant.
How many people are named Olav
1 in 374495 men in Poland is named Olav. 57 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #4924 among male names.
Olav's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Olav as a middle name
Olav is a first name for 57 men in Poland and a middle name for another 38, a 60/40 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1311th, between Norberto (38) and Oswaldo (38).
-
#1309 Moustafa38
-
#1310 Norberto38
-
#1311 Olav38
-
#1312 Oswaldo38
-
#1313 Rajendra38