Uwe

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 6 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◐

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

• Spanish given name6.3K records spelled Uwe6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Spain, United States, Argentina

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Üwe, Uwé

• Croatian given name598 records spelled Uwe11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Croatia, Bulgaria, United States, Switzerland

  Languages: Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian

  Also written Uve, Уве

52 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●

Uwe 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, a male given name, popular from the 1930s to the 1970s

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

• In German, ) Uve; Owe; Ove: männl. Vom., wahrscheinlich verselbstständigte friesische

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Low German and Frisian: equivalent form of OVE .

  as a word

• In mh, to board; ride; get on; embark; to mount; to rise, of dough

  as a word·Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD), CLDF v2.0

• In Dutch, non-attributive form of uw; yours

  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●

SE SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) — 22 years between 1999–2020. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Uwe Friedrichsenb. 1934DEGerman actor (1934–2016)
• Uwe Seelerb. 1936DEGerman association football player (1936–2022)
• Uwe Neuhausb. 1959DEGerman footballer and manager
• Uwe Beinb. 1960DEGerman association football player
• Uwe Bohmb. 1962DEGerman actor (1962–2022)
• Uwe Rahnb. 1962DEGerman association football player
• Uwe Kampsb. 1964DEGerman football player
• Uwe Bollb. 1965DEGerman filmmaker (born 1965)
• Thomas Dollb. 1966DEnot in their usual nameGerman association football manager (born 1966)
• Uwe Röslerb. 1968DEGerman association football manager and former player

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 · 178 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Uwe?

We estimate roughly 2.3 thousand people bear Uwe (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Uwe have the most bearers?

Uwe is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled uwe.

How common is Uwe compared with other names?

In Germany, Uwe is the 34th most common given name of 154,506 given names recorded there.

Is Uwe a male or female name?

Uwe 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 Uwe mean?

Recorded meaning: North German: from a Nordic name meaning either ‘blade’ or ‘awe’.