The name is from the Arabic word مَوَدَّة (mawaddah), meaning, “affection; love; friendship.” It has the same sense as the Greek word and name, Agape. It is ultimately derived from the Arabic root و-د-د (w-d-d), meaning, “love; affection; compassion.”
Sources
The name comes directly from the Welsh word for “love; charity.” It came into use in the 19th-century when an interest in reviving Cornish became popular in Cornwall.
An Anglicized spelling is Kerenza.
From the word of the same meaning, it ultimately derives from the Anglo-Saxon lufu (love). As a female given name, it has been in use since the Anglo-Saxon period, starting off as a pre-Christian name and later used as a vernacular form of the Greek female name, Agape, being used in honour of several saints who bore the name and was later used by the Puritans.
It forms the basis of several diathematic Anglo-Saxon female names, such as Loveday and Lovewell.
It appeared in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Female Names between 1880-1893 and peaked at #793 in 1885. It reappeared in 2022, coming in as the 752nd most popular female name.
If you are wondering why it also appears in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Male Names, this is actually a different name, Love (pronounced LOO-veh), is the Swedish form of Louis. Its appearance in the U.S. Top 1000 Most Popular Male Names also occurs when there was a huge peak in immigration from Sweden to the United States between 1880 and trickling away by 1909.
Anglo-Saxon forms are Lufu (LOO-voo) and Lufa (LOO-vah), a modern English alternative would be Lova which is also a Swedish feminine form of Love.
Sources
The name comes directly from the Maori word for love. It appeared one time in New Zealand’s Top 100 Female Names in 1982, ranking in at #97.
Another form is Te Aroha which means “the love.”
Sources
Liba can have a few meanings, it is firstly a polonized form of the Yiddish ליבאַ Lieba (love), which is identical to the German word. It may have also been influenced by the Czech word libý (nice; pleasant). It was popular among Eastern-European Jews as it also coincided with the Czech-Slovak name Líba, which is a contracted form of names like Libuše & Liběna.
Also sometimes spelled Liebe.
It was sometimes anglicized by Jewish immigrants to Leeba.
A Yiddish masculine form is Liber or Lieber.
In Latvia, the designated name-day is April 19, though in this case, it is probably a borrowing from the Czech & Slovak use.
Sources
Lubomir is composed of the Slavic elements, lubo (love) & mir (peace).
Its Czech form of Lubomír was one of the most popular male names in the Czech Republic between 1935-2006, it peaked at #16 in 1959.
Other forms include:
Diminutives & Short Forms
Feminine forms are
Sources
The name is from a Xhosa phrase meaning “it is love.”
Sources
Gender: Feminine
Origin: Czech/Slovak
Meaning: “young; love; dear.”
(mee-LAH-dah)
The name is believed to either be derived from the Old Slavonic, Mlada, meaning “youth” or from the Slavonic element mila meaning “love; dear.” In Slovakia, its designated name-day is December 29, in the Czech Republic, it is February 8th and in Slovenia, March 28th. A masculine form is Miladín.
Gender: Feminine
Origin: Czech/Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Macedonian
Meaning: “lover of beauty.”
(krah-soh-MEE-lah).
The name is composed of the Old Slavonic elements kras meaning “beauty” and mil meaning “love; favour; grace.” In Czech and Slovak, the name is associated with Pysna Princezna a beloved Czechoslovak fairy tale written by Bozena Nemcova, the story was adapted into a classic Czech film in the 1950s. The protagonist princess is named Krasomila. The designated name-day is October 10.
Gender: Feminine
Origin: Estonian
Meaning: “love”
The names are derived from the Finnish word lembus meaning “love.” Other forms include Lemme and Lemmi. Their designated name day is September 10.