Love
Feminine · Old English roots · “love”
Love is given to both — 4,797 girls and 988 boys since 1880. See Love as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Love is the plain English word, spelled the way everyone spells it, standing where a name usually stands. It belongs to the small family of virtue names that English speakers have handed to children since the Puritan era — Grace, Hope, Faith, Mercy, Joy — and it has never quite left the records since American statistics began. One syllable, four letters, no explaining required.
How old is the name Love?
Love was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Love is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,200 people named Love are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Love most popular?
Love peaked in 2023, reaching #731 nationally. Today it ranks #955, 224 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Love appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From lufu (Old English) to Love
The story of Love
English abstract-virtue naming took hold with the Puritans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who drew given names directly from the qualities they prized — Faith, Hope, Charity, Patience, Mercy — and Love sat comfortably among them, used for sons as well as daughters. Alongside that road runs the surname Love, from the Old English personal name Lufa, which reached America with English and Scottish families and has been passed forward as a first name in the way surnames often are. Quite separately, Love is a well-used boys' name in Sweden, where it is a Nordic form of Louis and Ludvig and sounds nothing like the English word. So one spelling covers two unrelated names, and in US records it is the English word that is doing the work.
Meaning
love
Straight from the English noun, which comes down from Old English lufu. As a surname, Love also traces to the Old English personal name Lufa, so some American bearers arrive at it through a family name rather than the word.
How the name formed
- lufuOld English
- luveMiddle English
- Love
Related forms: Love · Lova
Pronouncing Love
LUV
Said exactly like the English word. The Swedish name spelled the same way is LOO-veh, which is worth knowing if the family has Nordic ties.
Nicknames for Love
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2023384 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #731reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- −29.9%269 in 2025, from 384
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Love in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Love in Swedish — related form
- Lova in Swedish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Loves among us
people named Love are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,975 born in 2025 was named Love
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Maira test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Love's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maira climbed just as high around 1992, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maira's path sketches the road Love is walking now.
Love sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Love is headed
Love looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 30% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Love beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Love in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Nobody has to be told how to spell it or say it — it is a word every English speaker already writes.
- One syllable and four letters, which sits easily beside longer middle and last names.
- Part of a long English virtue-name tradition that includes Grace, Hope, Faith and Joy, so it has company and precedent.
- Carries a ready-made affectionate form in Lovie, which has its own history of standalone use.
- It is also an everyday word and a term of endearment, so sentences like "I love Love" happen, and so does the occasional confused pause on a class list or a phone call.
- A child will likely be the only one with the name in her school. Some children enjoy that; others would rather blend in, and there is no way to know in advance which you have.
- In Sweden the same spelling is a boys' name and a form of Louis, pronounced differently — relevant mainly for travel, relatives abroad or a Nordic side of the family.
- The wave behind it is recent, so most current bearers are children rather than adults, and the name does not yet have a grown-up American track record to point to.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Love to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Love? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Love
Feminine · Old English roots · #955 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Loves are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Love are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Love in 2025?
- Love ranks #955 among US girl names in 2025, with 269 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Love?
- About 1 in every 5,975 US girls born in 2025 was named Love — 269 in all.
- Will my child share the name Love with classmates?
- Love will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Love
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Anika#955 · Malaysia#955 · Kinslee#955 · Yasmin#955 · Rosalee#954 · Ainhoa#960 · August#960 · Bexley#960
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Love? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Love and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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