Ulf

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 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◐

Ulf is also recorded as 2 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Swedish given name38K records spelled Ulf6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, United States

  Languages: Swedish, Norwegian Bokmål, Danish

  Also written Úlf

• Russian given name263 records spelled Ulf8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

  Also written Ульф, Улф

48 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●

Ulf 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 German, männl. Vom., Kurzform von Namen, die mit dem Namenbestandteil altsächs. wulf »Wolf« gebildet sind, oder Entlehnung des nordischen Vornamens U lf (altnord. Ulfr) mit gleicher Bedeutung.

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Nordic: ‘wolf’.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In German, s. OD III und WOLF

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• Danish and Swedish: cognate of WOLF , from the Old Norse personal name or byname Úlfr . Cognate: Norwegian: Ulv .

  as a word

• In English, Initialism of Ultra Low Frequency, the band of radio waves between 300 hertz and 3000 hertz.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 53 years between 1945–2000. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Ulf von Eulerb. 1905SESwedish physiologist and pharmacologist (1905–1983)
• Ulf Schmidtb. 1934SESwedish tennis player
• Ulf Merboldb. 1941DEGerman astronaut
• Ulf Anderssonb. 1951SESwedish chess player
• Ulf Timmermannb. 1962DEEast German shot putter
• Ulf Kristerssonb. 1963SEPrime Minister of Sweden since 2022
• Ulf Kirstenb. 1965DEGerman footballer
• Marcus Grönholmb. 1968FInot in their usual nameFinnish rally driver
• Sebastian Larssonb. 1985SEnot in their usual nameSwedish association football player
• PewDiePieb. 1989SEnot in their usual nameSwedish YouTuber (born 1989)

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 · 237 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Ulf?

We estimate roughly 64 thousand people bear Ulf (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Ulf have the most bearers?

We estimate about 60 thousand people bear Ulf in Sweden, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled ulf.

Where is Ulf most common?

Ulf is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 170 people carrying it.

How common is Ulf compared with other names?

In Sweden, Ulf is the 263rd most common given name of 36,824 given names recorded there.

Is Ulf a male or female name?

Ulf is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Ulf mean?

Recorded meaning: a male given name, revived in the twentieth century