Love
Masculine · “the English word”
Love is given to both — 988 boys and 4,797 girls since 1880. See Love as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Love is an English surname long before it is a virtue name: it descends from Lufu, an Old English personal name, and families carried it for centuries before anyone thought of putting it on a birth certificate. It is also, quite separately, a Swedish boy's name, a written form of Ludvig said LOO-veh, which is one of the odder coincidences in European naming.
How old is the name Love?
Love first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Love alive today was born around 1965, making them about 60 years old. About 500 people named Love are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Love most popular?
Love peaked in 1890, reaching #566 nationally. Today it ranks #4707, 4,141 places below that high. See the whole 1890 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lufu to Love
The story of Love
English surnames of this kind come from personal names that stopped being given: Lufu was in use before the Norman conquest, and families descended from someone so named kept it. Puritan families in the seventeenth century, who gave children the names of virtues, Patience and Mercy and Prudence and Charity, used Love too, and it crossed to America with them. In Sweden, meanwhile, Love arrived by an entirely different route, as a written form of Ludvig, and is still a boy's name there. American use draws on the surname and the virtue.
Meaningscholars disagree
the English word, and an Old English personal name meaning love
Three roads. The English surname Love descends from Old English Lufu, itself a name meaning love, and in some families from Norman French louve, a she-wolf. The Puritan virtue-name tradition used the plain English word. And the Swedish Love is a form of Ludvig, unrelated to any of them.
How the name formed
- Lufu
- Love
Pronouncing Love
LUV
One syllable, exactly as the English word. The Swedish name that shares the spelling is said LOO-veh and is a different name entirely.
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 202328 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #566reached in 1890
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%21 in 2025, from 28
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Loves among us
people named Love are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 81,337 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
Fashion outlook
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
Love beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Love in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it, say it and remember it on first hearing.
- It has a documented history as an English surname going back before the Norman conquest.
- It works for a child of any background and in any language using the Latin alphabet.
- It is a word before it is a name, so it turns up in every second sentence a child hears.
- As a boy's name it is now unusual in American English and will be read as a girl's name by many.
- A name that means love is a lot to hand someone; some children carry it lightly and some do not.
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
Masculine · #4707 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 500 people named Love are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Love in 2025?
- Love ranks #4707 among US boy names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Love?
- About 1 in every 81,337 US boys born in 2025 was named Love — 21 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.
Ole#4707 · Shelton#4707 · Constantino#4707 · Adel#4707 · Cord#4707 · Zalman#4707 · Montez#4707 · Homer#4707
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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