Family name origins & meanings
- North German and Dutch : topographic name from the plural of hof ‘manor farm’, ‘court’, ‘garden’, or a habitational name from places named with this word, for example in the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Hainault.
- Norwegian : habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads named Hove, from the dative singular of Old Norse hof ‘pagan temple’, ‘place of worship’.
