Help from our Hispanic DU-ers: When did the name Olga become so popular in the Hispanic community?

[Aristus]

I know three Hispanic-American Olgas, including my clinic scheduler. I asked her if there is a tradition of naming Hispanic girls Olga, and she replied not as far as she knew.

I know it's originally a Russian name, although none of the Russian-American women I know are named Olga. I'm just wondering how that cultural cross-pollination happened.

Something that proves that perception is everything: I used to think Olga was an ugly name. Then I met a woman named Olga who was just drop-dead gorgeous. It turned me around on the name. I'm an idiot...

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I knew a Puerto Rican Olga in 1969.

She was the mother of a family I knew.

[Aristus]

4. So it's been around for a while.

The first Hispanic person I knew named Olga I only met ten years ago or so.

[subterranean]

30. I knew a Puerto Rican Olga in the 1980s.

She didn't like the name, though, and preferred to go by her middle name.

[mr_lebowski]

2. Well, I have to agree with your past opinion ... Olga's really not a pretty name IMHO ...

It's certainly no Muriel ... now THAT's a pretty name.

[Aristus]

5. IMO, the most beautiful name for a woman is Elise.

It's my granddaughter's name.

[mr_lebowski]

7. Haha ... Muriel was my beloved grandma's name :)

Elise (or Elyse) are also very beautiful, agreed.

Also, 'A Letter to Elise' by The Cure ... is one of my all-time favorite songs ... it's gloomy and depressing break-up song (much like Pictures of You) but I still love it

[Aristus]

10. A gloomy and depressing song by The Cure?

I'm shocked.

This is my shocked face:

[mr_lebowski]

31. I know, right? Crazy talk ...

Ya know the Cure song 'Friday I'm In Love'?

A Letter to Elise is ... the opposite of that.

It's not Faith, or Cold, or Sinking, or The Funeral Party, but ... yeah. It's sad. Awesome, but sad.

[CurtEastPoint]

12. 'You're terrible, Muriel.'

[Ohiogal]

13. I'm glad I wasn't named after my Polish grandmother

or my name would have been Władysława.

[Aristus]

18. I think Polish names carry with them a great deal of dignity.

n/t

[Ohiogal]

21. You're right, they do

but can be difficult to pronounce.

[Harker]

3. My late wife had a cousin Olga

who would be 80 now. Also, cousins named Iskra and Lenin.

[Aristus]

6. Iskra.

I wonder what the origin of that is?

[Harker]

9. I always figured that was Russian, too.

There was a sizeable branch on her family tree in Mexico that was heavily populated with Russian names, but those are the only three I can recall...

[Kali]

17. are they in Baja?

quite some interesting Russian migration history there.

[Harker]

20. Olga is in LA, Iskra...

at the time of her death, was a medical doctor in Mexico City. My late mother-in-law and her sisters settled in Mexico after fleeing the Spanish Civil War.

That, sadly, is about all I can recall.

[Harker]

11. Here we go...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iskra

[Mike 03]

8. I don't know, but when you look at a list of famous Olgas...

You see a couple of Olgas in Brazil and Puerto Rico in the late Sixties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_(name)

[wnylib]

14. I'm not Hispanic but got curious about this

because I have known 2 Olgas. One was Russian-American, a neighbor of my grsndfsther when I was a child. Several.decades later I met a Mexican-American woman named Olga.

Turns out it was originally a German and Scandinavian name, Helga. Several Scandinavians settled in Russia, which is how Russia got its name, from rus for red (red-haired).

Olga is the Slavic form of Helga. There was a Saint Olga in Kiev in the 10th century. The masculine form of the name is Oleg.

There are millions of people of German descent in Mexico. Most came in the 19th century, but several arrived during and after the 2 world wars.

My guess is that German immigrants carried the name Helga to Mexico where it became Olga for a couple reasons. One is that Olga is the form most associated with the saint from Kiev. Catholics name children after saints and Mexico is predominantly Cstholic.

The other reason for Helga becoming Olga in Mexico is that Spanish does not pronounce "h" at the start of a word. Helga would be pronounced as "Elga" in Spanish--much closer to Olga, the Slavic form of the saint's name.

[Aristus]

19. That's fascinating. Thank you so much!

[wnylib]

22. I've always been an etymology buff,

even as a child. Strange, I know. So in college I ended up studying languages and minored in anthropology. Love tracing names and words within cultural histories and across cultures.

[Totally Tunsie]

15. My father's cousin of Polish descent was named Olga.

Her new great granddaughter has Olga as her middle name in tribute.

[dweller]

16. only Olga i know is greek

✌🏼

[demmiblue]

23. My first thought was Greek.

Olga's is a Greek restaurant chain here in Michigan.

[LeftInTX]

24. It's an old name like Bertha and Beatriz

Every Hispanic Olga I know is old. The name peaked in 1910.

Bertha and Beatriz are also common old lady name among Hispanics.

Olga was a saint and saint names get shared via cultures.

For instance: Alex...is a name shared in Russian, English, Spanish etc. There is even an Armenian version called Iskander. Spanish is Alejandro. I don't know what the Russian version is.....

[lunasun]

25. I dunno but if they are Mexican could be a name made popular when an Austrian was emperor

Of Mexico and still in use ?

Maximilian I of Mexico, a Hapsburg
He was a younger brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy as its commander, he accepted an offer by Napoleon III of France to rule Mexico

Did not end well but maybe some of the eastern European names stayed around ?

[secondwind]

26. I'm 73 yrs young, and had a great aunt Olga.

[riversedge]

27. My aunts name is Olga--her parents were both born in Germany

[dhol82]

28. Ok. Have to reveal my real name is Olga. Named after my Russian grandmother.

The name seems to come from the Scandinavian Helga meaning holy.
Have no idea how it became popular in the Hispanic community. Might just have been considered lovely because of all the vowels.

[Karadeniz]

29. I know a Hispanic who lives in Juarez named Olga. She's not old...maybe 35-40.