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Tova

#2,643 in 2025Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Tova has been given to 2,750 babies in the U.S. since 1942. In 2025 it ranked #2,643 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 94 recorded.

Babies named Tova, 2025

1 in 50,200

Tova over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Tova: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Tova means

Tova has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

The naming story behind Tova

One of the source’s documented entries for Tova records a meaning of good.

A separate documented entry treats Tova as a variant of Tove. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

Origin, language, and formation

Tova is used in Faroese and Swedish.

Tova comes through Danish Tove.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,750 girls were recorded with the name Tova between 1942 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 94 in 2023; its best national rank was #1,750 in 1984.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,437 in 2020 to #2,643 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,586 in 2015 to #2,643 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Tova?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 50,200
66 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 24,400
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,643
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
34,818 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Tova sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 34,818 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Tova. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Tovas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Tova was born before 2001 — so the typical Tova is around 24 today.

Median birth year
2001
About 24 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
20.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
51.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,740
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 20.9% of all recorded uses (574).

Is Tova rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+16
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−206
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−57
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.94×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
70.2%
Peak was 2023 (94)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,750
1984

Spellings of Tova

Tova is not the most common spelling — Ava is, with 11.9% against Tova's 0.10%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Tova is used

Across 2016–2025, Tova was most concentrated in New Jersey — about 1 in 1,923 girls, against 1 in 12,117 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in 100,000).

152 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New Jersey1 in 1,923
  2. 2New York1 in 6,250
  3. 3Maryland1 in 10,000
  4. 4Washington1 in 25,000
  5. 5Minnesota1 in 50,000
  6. 6California1 in 100,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in 100,000
  8. 8Ohio1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Tova around the world

Where Tova ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2001–2025
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2023–2023
    #749
    in 2023
  • Northern Ireland
    2018–2018
    #434
    in 2018
  • France
    1990–2023
    #6,848
    in 2023
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #2,049
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1987–1989
    #692
    in 1989

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Tova

People whose public names include Tova, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Tova by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,643
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 206
Best rank ever
#1,750
1984
Peak year
2023
94 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,750
Count in 2025
66

Names similar to Tova

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

TovahToveOvaKovaCovaNovaLovaAnovaKnovaToviaGenovaJanovaToviZanovaSanovaJenovaLanovaClovaDovaKanovaSynovaLatovaNakovaZenova

Names with a curve like Tova

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Tova, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

SimaFatimahJamilahAvivaBradyXeniaNikaShoshanaKateriDevoraKeziaCassia

Sibling names for Tova

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Tova

Top names of 2023, Tova's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1984Girls' names starting with TShort Swedish Girl Names