Tovah
Tovah was given to 11 girls in 2025, #9,411 among girls’ names; 660 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tovah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Tovah?
#9,411 among girls’ names, 2025
Tovah rose from #9,436 in 2015 to #9,411 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 6.7 to 6.8 per million.
37 babies in 1979, the peak
Tovah peaked in 1979, when 37 girls were given it, #2,521 among girls’ names. The 11 births of 2025 are 30% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #9,411 | 6.8 |
| 2024 | 17 | #6,906 | 10.5 |
| 2023 | 19 | #6,386 | 11.8 |
| 2022 | 12 | #9,009 | 7.3 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,417 | 7.9 |
| 2020 | 15 | #7,536 | 9.3 |
| 2019 | 15 | #7,684 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 14 | #8,119 | 8.2 |
| 2017 | 13 | #8,735 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | 14 | #8,358 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 12 | #9,436 | 6.7 |
| 2014 | 11 | #10,085 | 6.2 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,192 | 6.3 |
| 2012 | 16 | #7,772 | 9.1 |
| 2011 | 10 | #11,128 | 5.7 |
| 2010 | 14 | #8,662 | 7.9 |
| 2009 | 16 | #8,022 | 8.7 |
| 2008 | 14 | #8,930 | 7.4 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,770 | 5.7 |
| 2006 | 8 | #13,518 | 4.2 |
| 2005 | 12 | #9,399 | 6.5 |
| 2004 | 8 | #12,691 | 4.4 |
| 2003 | 8 | #12,334 | 4.4 |
| 2002 | 9 | #11,038 | 5.0 |
| 2001 | 11 | #9,307 | 6.1 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,993 | 7.2 |
| 1999 | 9 | #10,284 | 5.1 |
| 1998 | 9 | #10,057 | 5.1 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,616 | 3.4 |
| 1996 | 8 | #10,499 | 4.6 |
| 1993 | 7 | #11,714 | 3.9 |
| 1992 | 6 | #13,233 | 3.3 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,292 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,844 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 6 | #12,273 | 3.3 |
| 1988 | 8 | #9,190 | 4.5 |
| 1987 | 21 | #4,115 | 12.1 |
| 1986 | 12 | #6,132 | 7.0 |
| 1985 | 21 | #3,974 | 12.2 |
| 1984 | 12 | #5,878 | 7.1 |
| 1983 | 28 | #3,060 | 16.8 |
| 1982 | 18 | #4,335 | 10.6 |
| 1981 | 31 | #2,923 | 18.6 |
| 1980 | 37 | #2,599 | 22.3 |
| 1979 | 37 | #2,521 | 23.0 |
| 1978 | 31 | #2,739 | 20.2 |
| 1976 | 6 | #9,199 | 4.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tovah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tovah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Tovah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tovah, and how old are they?
An estimated 646 Americans named Tovah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 12 and 43. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 589 people named Tovah (584 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 566 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
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).
How common is the spelling Tovah?
Tovah is a less common spelling of Tova: SSA has recorded 660 Tovah and 2,750 Tova since 1880.
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,689 babies since 1880, Tovah is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 11 of their 94 babies (12%), the third most given that year.
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 Tovah
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 Tovah and names like it
- Compare Tovah and TovaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sTovah peaked in 1979.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tovah since 1910.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Tovah.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Tovah alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with TMost given first.