Tove
Tove is a Scandinavian given name that derives from the Old Norse name Tófa. Some believe the name to be a shortening of Thorfrithr, "beautiful Thor" or "peace of Thor",[1][2][3] though the carvings on the Sønder Vissing Runestone show the name to have come from the rune for Tyr, the ancient Norse and Germanic god of sky, justice and war. While the two middle characters suggest cattle/Aurochs, and cattle/wealth/Frey respectively,[4] the last of the four runic characters also denotes gender. 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.
Today, Tove as a personal name is usually given to girls but occasionally to boys.[8] It is also an alternative English spelling of the Hebrew name more commonly spelled Tovah or Tova. Famous persons named Tove include:
- Women
- Tove Ditlevsen, Danish poet and author.
- Tove Jansson, Finnish artist and author.
- Tove Edfeldt, Swedish actress.
- Tove Lindbo Larsen, Danish politician
- Tove Maës, Danish actress
- Tove Nilsen, Norwegian writer
- Tove Nielsen, Danish politician
- Tove Styrke, Swedish singer
- Tove Lo, Swedish singer
- Men
- Tove Christensen, Canadian actor and producer.
- Tove (sculptor), Middle Age Scania sculptor.
Tove is also:
- 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.
- Tove of the Obotrites a 10th-century Wendish princess.
- a fictional, slithy creature created by Lewis Carroll that appears in his poem Jabberwocky.
- High Tove, a mountain in the English Lake District
- River Tove, tributary of the River Great Ouse in England.
- TOVE Project, an ontology for modelling enterprises.
- Tove (film), a biopic about Tove Jansson.
See also
- All pages with titles beginning with Tove
- All pages with titles containing Tove
- Tova (disambiguation)
References
- 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.)
- "The meanings of the runes". Norse Mythology for Smart People. 5 September 2019.
- 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.
- nordicnames.de: Tove