Tove

This article is about the name. For the movie, see Tove (film).

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

Some 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

Notable men

Fictional characters

  • 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

References

  1. ^ nordicnames.de: Tove
  2. ^ names-meanings.net: Tove, Tofa Archived 2010-06-20 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ behindthename.com: Tove, Thorfrithr
  4. ^ Teresa Norman, "Tova." A World of Baby Names. New York: Penguin, 2003. 504. (Note that "Tove" is listed as a cognate.)
  5. ^ Williams, Ann (2008). The World Before Domesday: The English Aristocracy 871-1066. Bloomsbury. pp. 28, 29.
  6. ^ "The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)". PASE. 5 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Will of William Tovie of Norton Saint Philip, Somerset". The National Archives.