Given name & surname · also Old Norse
Ulf
“resembling a wolf”
Ulf is used as a given name and a surname. One German interpretation is “resembling a wolf.”
Original GermanWolf
Meaning & origin
What it means
One German interpretation is “resembling a wolf.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Old Norse.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1965. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Ulf through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 5
- 5 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1965
- 5 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1965. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 337 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Ulf’s family of names
In Danish usage, Ulf has a diminutive in UFFE. Ulf shares a linguistic root with Wolf. Ulf has a related form in Ulfe.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Ulf has relatives in 6 languages. Lines run from its Old Norse roots to each of them.
6 related names in 6 languages. Point at a dot, or tab to the map and use the arrow keys.
Nicknames & forms 7
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 10
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- Arnulfoderivative · Spanish
- Wulfequivalent
- Loboequivalent
- Ylvafeminine form · Swedish
- Lopeequivalent
- Llopequivalent
- Lupusequivalent
- Úlfurcognate · Icelandic
Show 2 moreShow fewer
People named Ulf
- Ulf KristerssonPrime Minister of Sweden since 2022born 1963
- Ulf von EulerSwedish physiologist and pharmacologist (1905–1983)
- Ulf KirstenGerman footballerborn 1965
- Ulf MerboldGerman astronautborn 1941
- Ulf TimmermannEast German shot putterborn 1962
- Ulf AnderssonSwedish chess playerborn 1951
- Ulf StarkSwedish writer (1944–2017)
- Ulf EkmanSwedish chaplainborn 1950
- Jörgen JönssonSwedish ice hockey playerborn 1972
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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