Torvald

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Torvald is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 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.

• Norwegian29%

  a male given name from Old Norse

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

• English28%

  Old Norse: Thor the ruler

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• Swedish13%

  Torvald är ett nordiskt namn, sammansatt av → Tor- och → -vald. I den rikssvenska almanackan 17 juni och i den finlandssvenska 27 mars.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Torvald is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• Scandinavian: from an Old Norse personal name composed of the name of the god Thor ( órr ) + Old Norse valdr ruler. Variant: Thorwald. See also TOVE .

  as a word

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.

• Lauri Malmbergb. 1888FInot in their usual nameFinnish general (1888–1948)
• Torvald Haavardstadb. 1893NONorwegian politician (1893-1965)
• Torvald Tub. 1893NONorwegian writer (1893–1955)
• Torvald T:son Höjerb. 1906SESwedish Historian (1906–1962)
• Ole Torvaldsb. 1916FInot in their usual nameFinnish-Swedish journalist and poet from Finland (1916-1995)
• Torvald Kibsgaardb. 1918NONorwegian politician
• Thorvald Högströmb. 1926FInot in their usual nameFinnish cyclist (1926-2010)
• Torvald Torénb. 1945SESwedish organist
• Torvald Sundb. 1952NONorwegian writer
• Torvald Falchb. 1967NONorwegian author

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).

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

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

What does the name Torvald mean, and where does it come from?

a male given name from Old Norse Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

Is Torvald a male or female name?

Torvald is a male name. National registers that list it by sex list it as male: Norway (SSB) and Finland (DVV).

What are other forms of the name Torvald?

In the etymology graph, Thorvald is a form of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Torvald?

A machine transcription gives /tʊrʋɑld/ (IPA) for Norwegian.

In which country does Torvald have the most bearers?

In Sweden, the national register counted about 1.1 thousand people named Torvald, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled torvald.

Where is Torvald most common?

Torvald is densest in Sweden, where the national register counts about 1 in 9.1 thousand people carrying it.

How common is the name Torvald?

In Sweden, the national register counted 1,122 people named Torvald, about 1 in 9.1 thousand residents.