# Oleg (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/oleg/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Russian |
| Meaning | “holy”, “sacred”, “blessed” |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 466 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 466 / 0 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 46, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Borrowed from Russian Оле́г (Olég), a Varangian name, ultimately from Old Norse Helgi (“holy, sacred or blessed”). Cognate to modern Scandinavian Helge.

## What it means

Oleg is grouped under holy.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 22 | 4,466 |
| 2012 | 9 | 8,683 |
| 2013 | 16 | 5,574 |
| 2014 | 17 | 5,419 |
| 2015 | 16 | 5,670 |
| 2016 | 13 | 6,616 |
| 2017 | 13 | 6,568 |
| 2018 | 7 | 10,437 |
| 2019 | 26 | 4,080 |
| 2020 | 7 | 10,304 |
| 2021 | 8 | 9,453 |
| 2022 | 12 | 7,130 |
| 2023 | 14 | 6,425 |
| 2024 | 6 | 11,954 |
| 2025 | 9 | 8,728 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 5 | 3,095 |
| 2011 | 4 | 3,830 |
| 2013 | 4 | 3,822 |
| 2014 | 6 | 2,964 |
| 2015 | 10 | 2,150 |
| 2018 | 9 | 2,259 |
| 2019 | 5 | 3,411 |
| 2020 | 3 | 4,608 |

## In other languages

- Czech: Oleg
- Latin: Olegus
- Polish: Oleg
- Russian: Оле́г
- Swedish: Oleg
- Ukrainian: Оле́г

## People named Oleg

- Oleg Penkovsky, British spy in the USSR (1919–1963)
- Oleg Gordievsky, colonel of the KGB (1938–2025)
- Oleg Salyukov, Army General, Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, and Commander-in-Chief o
- Oleg Saitov, boxer
- Oleg I of Chernigov, (1052-1115)
- Oleg Reabciuk, association football player
- Oleg Kononov, footballer
- Oleg Cassini, American fashion designer (1913–2006)
- Oleg Antonenko, Belarusian ice hockey player
- Oleg Peshkov
- Oleg Grabar, French-born American art historian and archaeologist (1929–2011)
- Oleg Grigoryev, boxer

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.