Toivo
Toivo was last recorded in 1930, when 5 babies were given it; 535 Americans have been recorded with it between 1906 and 1930 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Toivo by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Toivo mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Toivo is “a male given name” Its etymology gives the sense “hope” (toivo).
From toivo (“hope”). Judging by place names (names of farmsteads), it was a personal name in pre-Christian Finland. The given name was revived in the mid-19th century. The surname may in some cases be derived from this old given name (via farm names), but in some cases may be shortened from Toiviainen, Toivanen, or simply adopted directly as a surname (during the Fennicization of surnames).
/ˈtoi̯ʋo/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Toivo?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #4,498, in 1930; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
57 babies in 1918, the peak
Toivo peaked in 1918, when 57 boys were given it, #886 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | 5 | #4,498 | 4.6 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,918 | 5.6 |
| 1928 | 12 | #2,514 | 10.8 |
| 1926 | 16 | #2,066 | 14.4 |
| 1925 | 11 | #2,736 | 9.9 |
| 1924 | 13 | #2,458 | 11.5 |
| 1923 | 23 | #1,639 | 21.0 |
| 1922 | 22 | #1,691 | 20.2 |
| 1921 | 39 | #1,158 | 35.4 |
| 1920 | 34 | #1,250 | 31.9 |
Every recorded year (23)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1919 | 33 | #1,245 | 33.7 |
| 1918 | 57 | #886 | 56.2 |
| 1917 | 49 | #918 | 52.9 |
| 1916 | 39 | #1,041 | 43.8 |
| 1915 | 24 | #1,405 | 28.3 |
| 1914 | 40 | #866 | 61.1 |
| 1913 | 39 | #758 | 76.1 |
| 1912 | 13 | #1,415 | 30.2 |
| 1911 | 15 | #891 | 66.4 |
| 1910 | 12 | #978 | 61.8 |
| 1909 | 13 | #836 | 79.3 |
| 1908 | 13 | #776 | 84.2 |
| 1906 | 7 | #1,102 | 52.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Toivo a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Toivo has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 23 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Toivo: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Toivo, and how old are they?
Almost everyone recorded as Toivo was born before 1900, so the estimate of Americans with the name alive today rounds to none. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 123 people named Toivo (0 women and girls, 123 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6 born in the U.S. The Census count is 20.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Toivo born?
The states with the most babies named Toivo are Michigan, Minnesota and Massachusetts, with 97% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Minnesota and Massachusetts are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 150 | not ranked | 8.8× |
| Minnesota | 96 | not ranked | 8.4× |
| Massachusetts | 67 | not ranked | 3.4× |
| Wisconsin | 10 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Toivo is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Toivo is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1910 it was given 8.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Toivo with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 630 babies since 1880, Toivo is the most given (85% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Toivo
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Toivo and names like it
- Compare Toivo and ToviBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sToivo peaked in 1918.
- Michigan’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Toivo since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Toivo: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Toivo.
- Names starting with TMost given first.