tove
{{About|the name|the movie|Tove (film)}}
Tove is a Scandinavian given name that derives from the Old Norse name Tófa or from the Old Norse name Þórfríðr, which combines Thor with "fríðr".
{{Infobox given name
| name = Tove
| pronunciation = toːvə
| gender = Female
| meaning = Beloved, Beautiful
| region = Scandinavia
| alternative spelling =
| variant forms = Tovah, Tova}}
Origins
Some believe the name to be a shortening of Þorfríðr, whose elements are the deity-name Thor and Old Norse fríðr 'beautiful'.names-meanings.net: [http://www.names-meanings.net/name/Tove/ Tove], [http://www.names-meanings.net/name/tofa Tofa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620013652/http://names-meanings.net/name/tofa |date=2010-06-20 }}behindthename.com: [http://www.behindthename.com/name/tove Tove], [http://www.behindthename.com/name/th31o10rfri10th30r Thorfrithr]Teresa Norman, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=uSAlLaV6JIEC&q=tove&pg=PA504 Tova]." A World of Baby Names. New York: Penguin, 2003. 504. (Note that "Tove" is listed as a cognate.) 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{{Cite book|title=The World Before Domesday: The English Aristocracy 871-1066.|last=Williams|first=Ann|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2008|pages=28, 29}} and later in the Domesday Book{{Cite web|url=http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=6&filterString=tovi|title=The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England (PASE)|date=5 September 2019|website=PASE}} in their Latinised form. The personal name became a surname in medieval England, with spellings of Tovi, Tovie{{Cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D963643|title=Will of William Tovie of Norton Saint Philip, Somerset|website=The National Archives}} (16th century) and Tovey recorded in wills and church documents.
Notable women
- 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 Midelfart, Norwegian lawyer and businesswoman
- Tove Maës, Danish actress
- Tove Nilsen, Norwegian writer
- Tove Nielsen, 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
- Tove (sculptor), 12th-century Scanian sculptor
- Tove Christensen, Canadian actor and producer
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
- 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
{{srt}}