Given name
Yoav
“to praise God”
Yoav is a form of Joab. One Hebrew interpretation is “to praise God.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
In Hebrew use, Yoav carries the interpretation “to praise God.” Yoav is a form of Joab. One Hebrew interpretation is “to praise God.”
Combines direct and name-family evidence
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Hebrew.
How it developed
Yoav is used as a form of Joab.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1970. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Yoav through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 411
- 411 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2008
- 29 babies
- 2025
- 8
- #9,678 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +7%
- Steady
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 8 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 9,678 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 7.1% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 29 in 2008. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 705 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.
Yoav’s family of names
Yoav is a form of Joab. Yoav has a related form in Yoave. Yoav has a related form in Yoavio.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Yoav
- Yoav GallantIsraeli politician and former military officer (born 1958)
- YoavIsraeli singerborn 1979
- Yoav SegalovitzIsraeli law enforcement officer and politicianborn 1959
- Yoav ShamirIsraeli filmmakerborn 1970
- Yoav Ben-TzurIsraeli rabbi and politicianborn 1958
- Yoav TalmiIsraeli conductor and composerborn 1943
- Yoav BenjaminiIsraeli statisticianborn 1949
- Yoav FreundAmerican computer scientistborn 1961
- Yoav CohenIsraeli windsurferborn 1999
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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