The oliver Surname

oliver Name Meaning and History

English, Scottish, Welsh, and German: from the Old French personal name Olivier, which was taken to England by the Normans from France. It was popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages as having been borne by one of Charlemagne’s paladins, the faithful friend of Roland, about whose exploits there were many popular romances. The name ostensibly means ‘olive tree’ (see Oliveira), but this is almost certainly the result of folk etymology working on an unidentified Germanic personal name, perhaps a cognate of Alvaro. The surname is also borne by Jews, apparently as an adoption of the non-Jewish surname.
Catalan and southern French (Occitan): generally a topographic name from oliver ‘olive tree’, but in some instances possibly related to the homonymous personal name (see 1 above).

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

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oliver Family Facts

Distribution of oliver Families in the US in 1920

Number of oliver families

518-1034

173-517

1-172

Compiled by Ancestry.co.uk from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.co.uk’s US Federal Census Collection.

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Threads: 2168 - Messages: 4919

Thread	Author	Replies
Unidentified pictures	BrianEllyson68	0
Obit: Patricia (Oliver) Neary of Iowa (1927-2008)	wilsonje19	0
Carl Oliver, married in Maryland, died in Florida, born??	gaston5510	0
eugene oliver sr and jr. descendants	loliver39	2
i am oliver born	esusanoliver	1
Caroline County, VA - Oliver Families	Sheila_Schmutz	8
John Oliver, born about 1503, Gloucestershire, England	normvig	5
Living Oliver relatives	Ann Oliver	5
Who is this Catherine Oliver in Caswell Co. North Carolina?	cmward71	0
Oliver Family in Orangeburg, SC	tanisha_johnson_burgess	1

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