Love

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Loeve in NL Netherlands, FR France, Löve in SE Sweden and Lövë in EC Ecuador.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 18 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Love is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname73K records spelled Love71 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Lövë, Löve, Lövê, Lóvé, Lovë

• a separate surname37K records spelled Love2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada

  Also written Löve

• Hindi surname31K records spelled Love21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Malaysia

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Lové, Lòvè, Lõvê, Lôvê, Ļôvë

• Chinese surname10K records spelled Love2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, China, Taiwan

86 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Love is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, From Old French love, ‘wolf’; chiefly associated with Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire, with Thomas Lufe recorded in Glasgow in 1472.

  as a name·Scottish Surnames

• In English, from OE lufu 'love', a popular woman's name, or OE Lufa (m); also AFr louve 'wolf'; first attested Lufe c1095 Bury (Sf)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, 2. English and Scottish: nickname from Anglo-Norman French lo(u)ve ‘female wolf’ (a feminine form of lou). This nickname was fairly commonly used for men, in an approving sense. No doubt it was reinforced by crossing with post-Conquest survivals of the masculine version of

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• A personal name from Old French love, ‘wolf’. As a surname it was mostly associated with Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire; Thomas Lufe is recorded in Glasgow, 1472. See also Wolfe.

  as a name·Scottish Surnames

• In English, from a Middle English personal name derived from the Old English female personal name Lufu ‘love’, or the masculine equivalent Lufa. Compare Leaf

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 136 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Augustus Edward Hough Loveb. 1863GBEnglish mathematician (1863–1940)
• Bessie Loveb. 1898USAmerican actress (1898–1986)
• Darlene Loveb. 1941USAmerican musician
• Mike Loveb. 1941USAmerican singer
• Bob Loveb. 1942USAmerican basketball player (1942–2024)
• Courtney Loveb. 1964USAmerican rock musician (born 1964)
• CeCe Winansb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican gospel singer
• Brandi Loveb. 1973USAmerican pornographic actress (born 1973)
• Darris Loveb. 1980USAmerican actor
• Kevin Loveb. 1988USAmerican basketball player (born 1988)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 392 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Love?

We estimate roughly 85 thousand people bear Love (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Love have the most bearers?

We estimate about 83 thousand people bear Love in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled love.

Where is Love most common?

Love is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 4.0 thousand people carrying it.

How common is Love compared with other names?

In the United States, Love is the 299th most common surname of 7,257,200 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Love mean?

Recorded meaning: from Old English male and female names meaning ‘beloved’, or from a nickname for a wolf-like or rapacious person