Dov
A Hebrew name that means "bear". In Poland it stays rare: most people here have never met a Dov, and the register logs it only in scattered single years, always boys.
Dov Pronunciation
What Dov means
Where Dov comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Dov comes from the Hebrew דֹּב, and it means bear. The animal, nothing softer. It belongs to the Jewish naming tradition as a word lifted straight from the everyday, the same term a Hebrew speaker uses for the creature in the forest.
A Jewish boy often carried it as half of a pair, Dov Ber, where Ber is the Yiddish for bear. The name then states its meaning in two languages at once. One documented bearer was Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the Maggid who died in 1772 and led the early Hasidic movement after the Baal Shem Tov. His students scattered across Eastern Europe, and the name went with them.
There are no diminutives to soften it, and no cross-gender form. Dov stays Dov.
On a Polish urząd form the name looks compact, four letters, and a clerk who reads no Hebrew might pause over it. The meaning holds regardless: bear.
How many people are named Dov
1 in 213462 men in Poland is named Dov. 100 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3448 among male names.
Dov's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Dov as a middle name
Dov is a first name for 100 men in Poland and a middle name for another 81, a 55/45 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 791st, between Ben (81) and Ekspedyt (81).
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#789 Anil81
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#790 Ben81
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#791 Dov81
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#792 Ekspedyt81
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#793 Jacobus81