Liv

given name · Latin script

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Liv is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Norway than in any other country, where it is the 85th most common given name. In English, recorded as A diminutive of the female given names Olive and Olivia.

rarermore common
  • NONorway1 in 269(measured from records)
  • SESweden1 in 949
  • DKDenmark1 in 1.1K

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.

Norway (measured from records)

20,317 people, 2025

Sources
193 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 269 (inferred from the name graph)

Norway

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

life

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

How Liv is read(measured from records)

Liv is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English32%

    A diminutive of the female given names Olive and Olivia.

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

  • Norwegian25%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Liv in Norwegian.

  • Danish11%

    life

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

  • French7.4%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Liv in French.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Liv 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 Liv is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
NO Norway#8520,3171 in 26955KLiv114
SE Sweden#46510,7541 in 94911KLiv53
US United States—5,1621 in 64K5.1KLiv193
DK Denmark#4435,1321 in 1.1K5.1KLiv111
CN China—≈4,800 est.≈1 in 291K—Liv12
KH Cambodia—≈940 est.≈1 in 18K—Liv17
FI Finland—3031 in 18K400—3

20,317 people counted by SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891), 2025. 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: SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). 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)

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

  • English given name8 spellings in the group

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

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Lìv, Lív

  • French given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Norway, United Kingdom

    Also written Lív

  • Spanish given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Peru, Brazil, Argentina

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Lìv, Lív, Lïv

  • a separate given name3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Norway, United States, Sweden, United Kingdom

    Also written Lív, L̶i̶v̶

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Lív

  • Polish given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, United States, United Kingdom, Norway

    Also written Lív

  • Russian given name10 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Ukraine, United States, Norway

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian

    Also written Лив, Лів, Lyv, LiW, Lív

46 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)

Liv is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In German, weibl. Vom. norwegischer Herkunft (alt­ nord. hlif »Wehr, Schild«, aber häufig mit liv »Leben« in Verbindung gebracht). 4· Be­ kannte Namensträgerinnen: Liv Ullmann, norwegische

    as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

  • Protección

    as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

  • Scandinavian: from an Old Norse female personal name identical in form with the vocabulary word hlíf defence, protection. In modern use it is often associated with the Norwegian vocabulary word liv life. The name is borne by a character in Nordic legend, and was revived in the late 19th century. It is now sometimes taken as a short form of ELISABET .

    as a word

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Livonian.

    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)

19201940196019802000Liv Ullmann, b. 1938Liv Bernhoft Osa, b. 1957Liv Signe Navarsete, b. 1958Liv Inger Somby, b. 1962Liv Kristine, b. 1976Liv Tyler, b. 1977Liv Mjönes, b. 1979Liv Lisa Fries, b. 1990Liv Morgan, b. 1994Liv Hewson, b. 1995

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(measured from records)

Attested in 81 sources across 38 countries.

Official registers attesting Liv
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
NO NorwaySSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population)—55K#42
NO NorwaySSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891)202520K—
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—11K#383
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—5.1K#135
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20205.1K#3,823
SE SwedenSCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023)20205K—
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—400#1,218
FI FinlandDVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register)—303—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025296—
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Navne til nyfødte (1985–present)2024156#41
NO NorwaySSB — Navn (1880–present)202586—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202045#3,823

Reference works 5

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 are other forms of the name Liv?
In the etymology graph, Livia, Ollie and Vivi are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Olivia.
Is Liv a male or female name?
Liv is a female 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.
Where does the name Liv come from?
life Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
In which country does Liv have the most bearers?
In Norway, the national register counted about 20 thousand people named Liv, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled liv.
Where is Liv most common?
Liv is densest in Norway, where the national register counts about 1 in 269 people carrying it.
How common is the name Liv?
In Norway, the national register counted 20,317 people named Liv in 2025, about 1 in 269 residents.
How common is Liv compared with other names?
In Norway, Liv is the 85th most common given name of 25,788 given names recorded there.
What does the name Liv mean?
In English, A diminutive of the female given names Olive and Olivia.

What do you want to know about Liv?

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

The same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.

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, “Liv” — the 85th most common given name in Norway. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Liv parses inside a full name →