Tovah
Feminine · “Hebrew tov”
Mazel tov does not mean congratulations. It means a good constellation. Mazal is a sign of the zodiac, from a word for a star's station, so the phrase wishes someone favorable stars, and it is astrology embedded so deeply in ordinary speech that nobody notices it any more.
How old is the name Tovah?
Tovah first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Tovah alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 600 people named Tovah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tovah most popular?
Tovah peaked in 1979, reaching #2477 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,383 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From tov to Tovah
The story of Tovah
Mazal is a genuinely astrological term. It names a station of the heavens and then a sign of the zodiac, and rabbinic literature debates whether Israel is subject to the influence of the constellations, with the famous ruling ein mazal le-Yisrael, Israel has no constellation, meaning it is not governed by them. The phrase mazal tov is medieval and originally wished someone favorable stars for an undertaking, which is why it is said at a birth, a wedding or a bar mitzvah rather than for an achievement: it looks forward, not back. Using it as congratulations is an English-language shift. The word passed into Yiddish and from there into English slang as mazel, luck, and the derivative schlimazel, someone with bad luck, which is built from the same word with a Middle High German element meaning crooked.
Meaning
Hebrew tov, good
From Hebrew tov, good, the word used repeatedly in Genesis 1 when God sees that creation is good. Tovah is the feminine. The phrase mazal tov combines it with mazal, a constellation or sign of the zodiac, and by extension luck, so the expression means a good sign or good fortune rather than congratulations. It peaks in the American data in 1979.
How the name formed
- tov
- Tovah
Related forms: Tova · Toibe
Pronouncing Tovah
TOH-vah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Modern Hebrew stresses the second, toh-VAH. The terminal h marks the final vowel as full and is not sounded in English.
Nicknames for Tovah
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
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 197937 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2477reached in 1979
- Change vs 2024
- −35.3%11 in 2025, from 17
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.
Tovah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Tova in Hebrew — transliteration
- Toibe in Yiddish — related form
Tovahs among us
people named Tovah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Tovah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Tovah
- #8860
- Tovah on the 2025 chart
- #883
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Tovah went to 11 girls in 2025, but Tova is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 77, which makes it the 883rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,977 places above the chart.
- Tova66
- Tovah11
About 1 girl in 20,874 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Tovah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Denell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tovah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Denell climbed just as high around 1964, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Denell's path sketches the road Tovah is walking now.
Tovah 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
Tovah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tovah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and entirely positive.
- It is easy to spell and to say.
- The word is familiar from a phrase most English speakers know.
- Hebrew and English stress the name differently.
- Tova without the h is the standard Israeli spelling.
- It is rare outside Jewish communities in the United States.
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What they receive
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Tovah
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tovahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Tovah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Tovah?
- Tovah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Tova is the more common one — 66 births in 2025 against 11 for Tovah.
- How popular is the name Tovah in 2025?
- Tovah ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tovah?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Tovah — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tovah with classmates?
- Tovah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tovah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tovah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tovah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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