Olympic Baby Names

Olympic skier Picabo Street was allowed to choose her name at the age of three, and picked it possibly (a) after a nearby Idaho town or (b) because she loved to play peekaboo. No longer a single-person name, it is now worn by a number of satisfied bearers.

This international variation of the popular Elijah might also be written as Iliya, Ilya, Ilja, and Ilija. It is currently a unisex option in the US.

Best known as the name of a chimpanzee living in the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University.

This undiscovered (by English speakers) Basque name would make a very attractive alternative to Madeleine. The Spanish canoeist Maialen Chourraut competed in the 2021 Olympic Games.

An alternative to Sasha, another common Russian nickname for Aleksandra.

The Finnish form of Peter was most common in its culture of origin in the 1950s and '60s.

Variation of Suheyla.

Nickname of the famed Hungarian-American volleyball player Charles "Karch" Kirily,

The similarity to snoring makes this one hard to wear.

A surname not often heard as a first, except in the case of English Gardner, the American track and field Olympian.

With the "oo" sound all the rage these days, Luvo makes a good choice if you are looking for a name that is unusual but sounds on-trend.

Quite popular in Turkey in the 1980s, Ozlem fell out of the Turkish top 100 in 2011.

This Swedish form of Sebastian would work nicely as a nickname.

In the same currently-popular style as Yareli and Yaretzi, this name is worn by Cuban-American boxer Yarisel Ramirez.