Synnøve as a Baby Name. Meaning and Origin of Synnøve

What is the meaning of the name Synnøve ?

The baby name Synnøve is a girl name , 3 syllables long and is pronounced /ˈsʏnːøːvə/.

Synnøve is Norwegian, Old English in Origin.

Norwegian Synnøve is a dialectal form of Sunniva, whose root is Old English Sunngifu. That compound joins sunne, sun, with gifu or gyfu, gift, so the literal sense is sun-gift. In Scandinavian transmission the medial -ng- and final unstressed vowel were reshaped, while Norwegian ø reflects a rounded front vowel in the local form rather than a separate element.

The name is tied to Saint Sunniva, the medieval patron saint of Bergen and Selja, whose legend was cultivated in Norway. Synnøve also gained literary visibility through Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson’s 1857 novella Synnøve Solbakken. It ranked in Norway’s Top 100 for girls from 1945 to 1966, but has since become less common, especially outside Norway; variants include Sunniva, Synneva, Sunnive, and unaccented Synnove.