David is a common masculine given name. It is of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

origin, and its popularity derives from King

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, a figure of central importance in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and Islam.

Etymology

David () means "beloved", derived from the root ''dôwd'' (דּוֹד), which originally meant "to boil", but survives in Biblical Hebrew only in the figurative usage "to love"; specifically, it is a term for an

uncle An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an uncle is an aunt, and the reciprocal rela ...

or figuratively, a lover/beloved (it is used in this way in the Song of Songs: אני לדודי ודודי לי, "I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me"). In Christian tradition, the name was adopted as syr, ܕܘܝܕ Dawid,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

or . The

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

ic spelling is . David was adopted as a Christian name from an early period, e.g. David of Wales (6th century), David Saharuni (7th century),

David I of Iberia David I ( ka, დავით I) (died 881) was a Georgian Bagratid Prince and curopalates of Iberia/Kartli from 876 to 881. He was murdered by Nasra of Tao-Klarjeti, who self-proclaimed as his successor. David's death led to an inter-dynastic fe ...

(9th century).

Name day In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, among other parts of Christendom. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively that of a ...

s are celebrated on 8 February (for

David IV of Georgia David IV, also known as David the Builder ( ka, დავით აღმაშენებელი, ') (1073–1125), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 5th king of United Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125. Popularly considered to be ...

), 1 March (for St. David of Wales) and 29 December (for King David), as well as 25 June ( St. David of Sweden), 26 June, 9 July (

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

), 26 August, 11 December and 30 December (Hungary, Latvia, Norway,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Hypocorisms

The oldest, most popular and most commonly used diminutive form in the English speaking countries of David is Dav, which first appeared in written form in the 16th century. The nickname Dav or Dave has been used as a name in its own right in the 19th and 20th centuries, at least in the United States. At the height of its popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s, the name Dave was bestowed upon more than 3,000 infants each year. Other common English-language

hypocorism A hypocorism ( or ; from Ancient Greek: (), from (), 'to call by pet names', sometimes also ''hypocoristic'') or pet name is a name used to show affection for a person. It may be a diminutive form of a person's name, such as ''Izzy'' for I ...

s of the name David are Davey, Davie, and Davy. The Welsh

Dafydd Dafydd is a Welsh masculine given name, related to David, and more rarely a surname. People so named include: Given name Medieval era :''Ordered chronologically'' * Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (c. 1145-1203), Prince of Gwynedd * Dafydd ap Gruffydd (12 ...

is also abbreviated Dewi, Dai and Daf. In Ashkenazi Jewish culture, common hypocorisms of Dovid are Dovi and Dov. Dudi is a common hypocorism in Modern Hebrew. Davo is also used as a nickname, and is quite common in Australia and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

, while the nickname Dato (for Davit) is popular in the country of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Female forms

Some female forms of the name are Daveigh, Davetta, Davida, and Davina. The girl's name Davinia may derive from David, but it has also been considered a derivation from the Gaelic Devin or a variant of Lavinia.

Statistics

* United Kingdom: David was the most popular masculine given name in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

for newborns in 1975 and dropped to a fluctuating rank around 20th in the first few years of the 21st century. * United States: David is the second most popular masculine name in the United States. 10,905,563 (1 out of 28) Americans are named David. Approximately 92,597 Davids are born each year. * United States: In 2015, the name David was the 18th most popular name for baby boys in the United States.ourbabynamer.com

Variants

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: * Albanian: , , , , * Amharic: *

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: ** Classical: **

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: (, , , , ) *

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: *

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: ** Classical: () **

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: () **

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: () * Assamese: (), () * Azerbaijani: , * Bashkir: () *

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: * Bosnian: , *

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: *

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: , *

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: , * Cornish: * Croatian: *

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: , *

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: *

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: * Esperanto: * Estonian: , * Faroese: , , , * Fijian: *

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: , * Finnish: , , , * French: *

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: , * Galician: * Ge'ez: *

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: (), (), (), (), (), () * German: , (extremely rare) * Greek: ** Biblical: , , , , **

: () *

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: () *

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: , * Hawaiian: , , *

: Hebrew spelling without diacritics: , (rare) or full diacritics: (David) ** Biblical: (Dawid) **

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: (Dāwîḏ) *

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: (), () * Hungarian: * Icelandic: *

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: * Inuktitut: () * Irish: , * Italian: * Japanese: (), () *

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: () * Khmer: (), () *

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: () *

: , * Latvian: , * Lithuanian: , * Malay: **

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: , **

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: , , , *

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: () * Macedonian: () *

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: ** Simplified: (), (), () **

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: (), (), (), () * Mandinka: , , * Manx: *

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: *

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: () *

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: Daw, Day *

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: *

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: *

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: , * Norwegian: *

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: * Russian: (), (), () * Samoan: * Scots: , *

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: * Spanish: * Swahili: * Swedish: *

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: (, ) *

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: () *

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: (Davyd), Devid *

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: , , *

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: () *

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: , , * Zulu:

Notable people with the name

References