Norwegian2 syllablesEveryday form
Meaning: the ancestors’ heir.
Ola
Every country needs a name for the person who is nobody in particular. Britain has John Smith, America has John Doe, and Norway has Ola Nordmann — which tells you how thoroughly ordinary this name has always been.
| Origin | Norwegian — the everyday form of Olav, from Old Norse Óláfr |
|---|---|
| Meaning | From anu, forefather or ancestor + leifr, heir or descendant — the one who inherits from the forefathers |
| Pronunciation | OO-lah — the first vowel is the oo of "food", not the o of "open" |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100 and not in American use; in Norway a long-standing everyday name, especially in the inland districts |
| Variants | Olav and Olaf (the full forms), Ole (Danish and Norwegian), Olle (Swedish), Ólafur (Icelandic) |
| Nicknames | None — Ola is already the short form of something longer |
| Ola Nordmann | The stock name for the average Norwegian, the country's John Doe; the female counterpart is Kari Nordmann |
History & meaning
The full name is Óláfr, older Áleifr, and it is a compound about inheritance rather than about weapons or gods: an element meaning forefather joined to leifr, heir or what is left behind — the same word that stands alone as Leif. The one who carries on from the ancestors. It became the great Norwegian royal name through Olav Haraldsson, killed at Stiklestad in 1030 and canonised almost immediately, after which every parish in the North knew it. Ordinary speech then did what it always does with a name used a hundred times a day, and Olav wore down to Ola. Denmark arrived at Ole by the same route and Sweden at Olle.
The everyday-ness became official. Ola Nordmann — literally Ola Norwegian — is the stock figure of the average citizen, the man in the newspaper cartoon and the worked example in the tax leaflet, with Kari Nordmann beside him. A name only gets that job by having been everywhere for a very long time, and in the inland valleys Ola and Olav between them accounted for a startling share of the male population. What that leaves is a name with no pretension attached to it at all, which in Norway is close to a compliment.
Why parents choose it
For its plainness and its two clean vowels. There is one thing to weigh first, and it is not the meaning: outside Scandinavia the ‑a ending reads feminine to most ears, and in Poland Ola is a standard short form of Aleksandra. A Norwegian family in Oslo will never think about this; a Norwegian family in Chicago will think about it every school year.
Middle names for Ola
Norway itself usually answers this by making Ola half of a double first name, and the same instinct works well: Ola Magnus, Ola Kristian, Ola Henrik, Ola Vincent. Avoid a middle beginning with a vowel, which swallows the final a. See the middle names guide.
Famous Olas
Ola Gjeilo writes choral music that choirs on both sides of the Atlantic programme constantly, having moved from Oslo to New York in his twenties. Ola Kvernberg plays fiddle across jazz, folk and film scoring, and is one of the most inventive Norwegian musicians of his generation. Ola Elvestuen served as Norway's Minister of Climate and Environment.
Consider instead
Olaf is the full form and the international one, with the saint and the kings attached. Odd is another short Norwegian name with an English complication to think through. Arne has the same unpretentious two-syllable feel and means eagle.