Girl · Old Norse
Tove
Say it: TOH-veh
Meaning
From Old Norse Tófa, probably a pet form of names beginning Þór- (from Thor).
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Recorded on Danish runestones and very popular in Scandinavia in the 20th century.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 193 babies given this name since 1930
- At its height in 2018, about 1 in 121,100 girls
- 12 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age700 to 1100
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Tova
| Old Norse | Tófa |
|---|---|
| Norwegian | Tuva |
Famous bearers
- Tove, wife of Harald Bluetooth, named on the Sønder Vissing runestone
- Tove Jansson, Finnish-Swedish creator of the Moomins
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Viking Age runestone inscriptions
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.