Tova
Tova was given to 66 girls in 2025, #2,643 among girls’ names; 2,750 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,670 Americans named Tova and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 10 and 41.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tova by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tova mean?
Wiktionary, Swedish section
Tova is “a female given name”
An old Swedish equivalent of Tove. Recorded in runes and revived as a modern Swedish name since 1912.
Meaning: Wiktionary, Swedish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tova?
#2,643 among girls’ names, 2025
Tova fell from #2,586 in 2015 to #2,643 in 2025 among girls’ names, although its share of girls born rose from 39.2 to 41.1 per million.
94 babies in 2023, the peak
Tova peaked in 2023, when 94 girls were given it, #2,075 among girls’ names. The 66 births of 2025 are 70% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 66 | #2,643 | 41.1 |
| 2024 | 66 | #2,659 | 40.7 |
| 2023 | 94 | #2,075 | 58.6 |
| 2022 | 81 | #2,316 | 49.4 |
| 2021 | 54 | #3,066 | 32.9 |
| 2020 | 72 | #2,437 | 44.5 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,995 | 32.8 |
| 2018 | 60 | #2,839 | 35.3 |
| 2017 | 73 | #2,483 | 42.3 |
| 2016 | 67 | #2,642 | 37.8 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 70 | #2,586 | 39.2 |
| 2014 | 42 | #3,709 | 23.5 |
| 2013 | 46 | #3,456 | 26.2 |
| 2012 | 62 | #2,830 | 35.2 |
| 2011 | 44 | #3,600 | 25.0 |
| 2010 | 55 | #3,071 | 30.9 |
| 2009 | 42 | #3,793 | 22.9 |
| 2008 | 55 | #3,117 | 29.1 |
| 2007 | 54 | #3,212 | 28.1 |
| 2006 | 37 | #4,067 | 19.5 |
| 2005 | 43 | #3,502 | 23.3 |
| 2004 | 43 | #3,482 | 23.4 |
| 2003 | 39 | #3,648 | 21.3 |
| 2002 | 46 | #3,138 | 25.6 |
| 2001 | 44 | #3,189 | 24.4 |
| 2000 | 38 | #3,514 | 20.9 |
| 1999 | 31 | #3,886 | 17.5 |
| 1998 | 35 | #3,491 | 19.8 |
| 1997 | 42 | #2,930 | 24.1 |
| 1996 | 39 | #3,084 | 22.2 |
| 1995 | 39 | #3,013 | 22.2 |
| 1994 | 42 | #2,869 | 23.5 |
| 1993 | 37 | #3,147 | 20.5 |
| 1992 | 34 | #3,332 | 18.4 |
| 1991 | 44 | #2,730 | 23.5 |
| 1990 | 37 | #3,072 | 19.5 |
| 1989 | 35 | #3,092 | 19.0 |
| 1988 | 44 | #2,483 | 24.7 |
| 1987 | 50 | #2,193 | 28.8 |
| 1986 | 52 | #2,073 | 30.3 |
| 1985 | 51 | #2,097 | 29.6 |
| 1984 | 63 | #1,750 | 37.4 |
| 1983 | 51 | #2,020 | 30.5 |
| 1982 | 30 | #3,014 | 17.7 |
| 1981 | 40 | #2,445 | 24.0 |
| 1980 | 32 | #2,862 | 19.3 |
| 1979 | 37 | #2,520 | 23.0 |
| 1978 | 31 | #2,738 | 20.2 |
| 1977 | 28 | #2,903 | 18.3 |
| 1976 | 27 | #2,858 | 18.4 |
| 1975 | 32 | #2,511 | 21.9 |
| 1974 | 23 | #3,101 | 15.7 |
| 1973 | 21 | #3,226 | 14.4 |
| 1972 | 24 | #2,897 | 15.8 |
| 1971 | 24 | #2,949 | 14.4 |
| 1970 | 21 | #3,196 | 12.0 |
| 1969 | 20 | #3,095 | 11.9 |
| 1968 | 24 | #2,625 | 14.6 |
| 1967 | 9 | #4,951 | 5.5 |
| 1966 | 14 | #3,546 | 8.3 |
| 1965 | 8 | #5,259 | 4.5 |
| 1964 | 15 | #3,500 | 7.9 |
| 1963 | 13 | #3,787 | 6.7 |
| 1962 | 18 | #3,024 | 9.2 |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,521 | 5.0 |
| 1959 | 16 | #3,096 | 7.9 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,960 | 2.5 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,884 | 3.9 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,653 | 2.6 |
| 1954 | 9 | #4,245 | 4.6 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,464 | 6.4 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,327 | 2.7 |
| 1950 | 5 | #6,039 | 2.9 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,975 | 2.9 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,313 | 3.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tova a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tova has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 75 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tova: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tova, and how old are they?
2,670 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,750 Americans ever recorded as Tova. The median Tova alive today is 24 years old; half are between 10 and 41.
The 2020 Census counted 2,406 people named Tova (2,383 women and girls, 23 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,277 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 103 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 350 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 669 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 703 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 841 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 Tova born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 19 | #419 | 4.4× |
| New York | 12 | #1,231 | 4.3× |
Where Tova is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tova is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1942 it was given 4.4 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 girls’ 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 Tova 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,689 babies since 1880, Tova is the most given (75% of them). In 2025 it was given to 66 of their 94 babies (70%), again the most given.
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 Tova
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 Tova and names like it
- Compare Tova and TovahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sTova peaked in 2023.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tova since 1910.
- Swedish namesWiktionary’s origin for Tova: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Tova.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Tova alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.