Save Gender Feminine & Masculine Usage Finnish Pronounced Pron. /ˈtuo̯.ʋi/ [key·simplify] Meaning & History Derived from the place name Tuovila "village of Tove", a village in Finland. It was invented by the Finnish author Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen for a character of his novel "Pohjan-Piltti" (1859).