Tuvya
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Tuvya. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Tuvya today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Tuvya births was 2012 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Tuvya. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Tuvya with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Tuvya. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
2012
5 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2012 SSA rank
#14,076
Tracked since 2012
Popularity
Tuvya: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Tuvya by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Tuvya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Tuvya
The name Tuvya is a Hebrew name derived from the Biblical Hebrew word "tov" meaning "good". It originated as a masculine given name among Jewish communities in the Middle East, particularly in Israel and surrounding regions.
The earliest recorded use of the name Tuvya can be traced back to the Talmudic period, around the 3rd to 6th centuries CE. It was mentioned in some Talmudic texts as the name of a few rabbis and scholars from that era. One notable example is Rabbi Tuvya ben Mattiah, a Jewish sage who lived in the 2nd century CE and is mentioned in the Mishnah.
During the Middle Ages, the name Tuvya became more widespread among Jewish communities across Europe and the Mediterranean region. It was commonly used as a given name for boys in Sephardic Jewish communities in Spain, Portugal, and North Africa.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Tuvya was Tuvya ben Eliezer, a renowned Jewish philosopher and poet who lived in Spain in the 11th century. Another notable individual was Tuvya ben Joseph, a Jewish scholar and poet from Seville, Spain, who lived in the 12th century.
In the 16th century, a prominent Jewish scholar and kabbalist named Tuvya ben Shmuel Ashkenazi, also known as Tuvya Ha-Rofe (Tuvya the Physician), lived in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). He was a respected figure in the Ottoman Jewish community and wrote several influential works on Jewish mysticism and ethics.
Another historical figure with the name Tuvya was Tuvya ben Shlomo Lefin, a 17th-century Jewish scholar and author from Poland who wrote extensively on Jewish law and ethics. He was also known as the "Maharam of Kalisz" and was highly respected in his time.
While the name Tuvya has its roots in the Hebrew language and Jewish culture, it has also been adopted and used by non-Jewish communities in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with significant Jewish populations or influence.
People
Tuvya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Tuvya as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Tuvya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Tuvya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Tuvya going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Tuvya a common name?
We classify Tuvya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Tuvya most popular?
The single biggest year for Tuvya was 2012, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Tuvya is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Tuvya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Tuvya a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Tuvya in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Tuvya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Tuvya in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Tuvya can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many Americans are named Tuvya?
See how many Americans are named Tuvya on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.