Tove is a Scandinavian given name that derives from the Old Norse name Tófa. The name is usually given to girls but occasionally to boys.[1] It is also an alternative English spelling of the Hebrew name more commonly spelled Tovah or Tova.
Origins
editSome believe the name to be a shortening of Þorfríðr, whose elements are the deity-name Thor and Old Norse fríðr 'beautiful'.[2][3][4] Tófa and Tófi appear to have been relatively popular names in the 10th and 11th centuries and are found in Anglo-Scandinavian court witness lists[5] and later in the Domesday Book[6] in their Latinised form. The personal name became a surname in medieval England, with spellings of Tovi, Tovie[7] (16th century) and Tovey recorded in wills and church documents.
Notable women
edit- Tove of the Obotrites, 10th-century Wendish princess
- Tove Alexandersson, Swedish orienteer
- Tove Ditlevsen, Danish poet and author
- Tove Edfeldt, Swedish actress
- Tove Fergo, Danish vicar and politician
- Tove Jansson, Finnish artist and author
- Tove Lindbo Larsen, Danish politician
- Tove Lo, Swedish singer
- Tove Maës, Danish actress
- Tove Nilsen, Norwegian writer
- Tove Nielsen (politician), Danish politician
- Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (1940-2023), Finnish linguist and educator
- Tove Styrke, Swedish singer
- Birte Tove (1945–2016), Danish actress and nude model
Notable men
edit- Tove (sculptor), 12th-century Scanian sculptor
- Tove Christensen, Canadian actor and producer
Fictional characters
edit- a legendary young woman, mistress of the Danish King Waldemar, and subject of a poem by Jens Peter Jacobsen best known for its musical setting as the Gurre-Lieder of Arnold Schoenberg
- a fictional, slithy creature created by Lewis Carroll that appears in his poem Jabberwocky
See also
edit- High Tove, a mountain in the English Lake District
- River Tove, tributary of the Great Ouse in England
- TOVE Project, an ontology for modelling enterprises
- Tove (film), a 2020 biopic about Tove Jansson
- All pages with titles beginning with Tove
- All pages with titles containing Tove
- Tova (disambiguation)
References
edit- ^ nordicnames.de: Tove
- ^ names-meanings.net: Tove, Tofa Archived 2010-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ behindthename.com: Tove, Thorfrithr
- ^ Teresa Norman, "Tova." A World of Baby Names. New York: Penguin, 2003. 504. (Note that "Tove" is listed as a cognate.)
- ^ Williams, Ann (2008). The World Before Domesday: The English Aristocracy 871-1066. Bloomsbury. pp. 28, 29.
- ^ "The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)". PASE. 5 September 2019.
- ^ "Will of William Tovie of Norton Saint Philip, Somerset". The National Archives.
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