Tova - Name Meaning and Popularity -

Meaning of Tova

Tova is a succinct Hebrew given name derived from “tov,” the word for “good” or “pleasant,” and it wears that meaning with the kind of restraint only a two-syllable label can manage. Crossing borders with admirable diplomacy, it later surfaced in Scandinavia—think Tova Borgnine in the beauty world and, by phonetic cousinage, author Tove Jansson—adding a cool Nordic afterglow to its biblical roots. In the United States, Tova has made a habit of hovering near the bottom of the Social Security charts; it peaked at a modest No. 620 in 1942 and, more recently, logged 65 births in 2024 for a rank of 885. Such statistics place it in the sweet spot for parents who want a name people recognize but don’t hear every day. Pronounced TOH-vah, it slips easily off English-speaking tongues while still signaling cultural depth—a compact, quietly confident choice that has resisted both obscurity and overexposure for more than eight decades.