Järv

surname · Latin script

Meaning: lake (a larger land cavity filled with water that is not directly connected to the sea)

Järv is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Estonia than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • EEEstonia1 in 2.4K(measured from records)
  • FIFinland1 in 28K
  • SESweden≈1 in 3.6M

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Estonia (measured from records)

516 people

Sources
22 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 2.4K (inferred from the name graph)

Estonia

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

One other spelling is counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Jarv in SE Sweden, US United States.

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

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

lake (a larger land cavity filled with water that is not directly connected to the sea)

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 7 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Järv counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Järv is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
EE Estonia#1385161 in 2.4K516Järv22
FI Finland—2011 in 28K201Järv3
SE Sweden—≈3 est.≈1 in 3.6M34Jarv3
US United States————Jarv13

516 people counted by Statistics Estonia — Ees- ja perekonnanimed (Population Register). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Statistics Estonia — Ees- ja perekonnanimed (Population Register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Järv is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname9 spellings in the group

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

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Jarv, Jaerv

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Jarv

  • Spanish surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Estonia, Colombia, Mexico

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Jarv

  • Swedish surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Estonia

    Also written Jarv

  • Arabic surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Egypt

    Also written Jarv

  • Polish name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Jarv

  • Hindi name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Jarv

10 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(measured from records)

Järv is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In Swedish, wolverine (Gulo gulo)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In vep, lake

    as a wordkaikki.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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1850190019502000Jaak Järv, b. 1852Eduard Järv, b. 1899Anna-Elvira Järv, b. 1909Harry Järv, b. 1921Ants Järv, b. 1928Väino Järv, b. 1930Elo-Reet Järv, b. 1939Jaak Järv, b. 1948Risto Järv, b. 1971Laur Järv, b. 1974

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).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalLugupeetud härra Järv,Dear Mr Järv, (English)
InformalTere Järv,Hi Järv, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 8 sources across 3 countries.

Official registers attesting Järv
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
EE EstoniaStatistics Estonia — Ees- ja perekonnanimed (Population Register)—516#64
EE EstoniaStatistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed)—516#47
EE EstoniaStatistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed)—449#75
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—201#7,437
FI FinlandDVV — Sukunimitilasto (Finnish surnames register)—37—
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—18#27,726

Reference works 2

  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Järv mean, and where does it come from?
lake (a larger land cavity filled with water that is not directly connected to the sea) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Järv have the most bearers?
In Estonia, the national register counted about 516 people named Järv, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled järv.
Where is Järv most common?
Järv is densest in Estonia, where the national register counts about 1 in 2.4 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Järv?
In Estonia, the national register counted 516 people named Järv, about 1 in 2.4 thousand residents.
How common is Järv compared with other names?
In Estonia, Järv is the 138th most common surname of 37,297 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Järv?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/j%C3%A4rv

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Järv” — the 138th most common surname in Estonia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Järv parses inside a full name →