ances tree

Though greatly overshadowed by the trendy Olivia, Olive has a quiet, subtle appeal of its own -- and is now enjoying a remarkable comeback. Olive is one of only four girl names starting with O on the US Top 1000. Cool couple Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen chose it for their daughter, reviving the name to stylishness, and now Drew Barrymore has a little Olive too, as has country singer Jake Owen.

Oliver is an international star, ranking near the top of the charts in the US and throughout the English-speaking world, along with a host of European and Latin American countries, from Norway to Chile, Slovenia to Switzerland.

Olivia, a lovely Shakespearean name with an admirable balance of strength and femininity, is the Number 1 name for baby girls in the US and one of the top girls' names around the world.

More and more frequently heard as the Gallic version of Oliver, Olivier could be seen as a tribute to the great British actor, Sir Laurence O.

Opal is on the verge of a repolishing, following other jewel names like Ruby and Pearl. A Top 100 name during the first two decades of the twentieth century, the opalescent Opal has a good chance of coming back as another O-initial option.

Short and slight, with great potential now that names like Ava, Ida and Orla are popular. Ora Beach is a tourist destination on Seram Island, Indonesia.

Orlando, the ornate Italianate twist on the dated Roland, with a literary heritage stretching back to Shakespeare and before, has appealing book-ended o's, and is open to combination with almost any last name, a la British actor, Orlando Bloom.

Orpha, with its Biblical roots and its animal meaning, was once a fairly popular name, but fell from sight around the time of the Second World War, along with so many other Old School Names. And its similarity to the word orphan probably didn't help.

Orra and Ora are simple yet rare names with a lovely religious meaning.

Only if you're an aviation buff or seriously addicted to popcorn.

Future CEO.

Oscar is one of the most stylish Old Man Names of our era. While it's softened slightly in popularity over the past 20 years, that may be considered a very good thing.

Despite the success of so many O-starting boys names--Oliver, Owen, Otis, Oscar--Oswald has not yet shown any signs of resurrection, though he does have the animating nicknames Ozzie/Ozzy and Oz. The name has some literary cred--in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's King Lear and a novel by H. G.Wells--and there was early cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Palmer is a name that derives from the fact that pilgrims often carried palms, thus the double meaning. It's a fresher sounding twist other surname style names, such as Spencer, Carter, Porter and Parker.

More masculine than Paris for a boy, but in danger of being misunderstood as that name; has a slightly churchy feel.

A grassy place with trees is a nice image to attach to a name.