David Annis

(male) Biblical name, borne by the greatest of all the kings of Israel, whose history is recounted with great vividness in the first and second books of Samuel and elsewhere. As a boy he killed the giant Philistine Goliath with his slingshot. As king of Judah, and later of all Israel, he expanded the power of the Israelites and established the security of their kingdom. He was also noted as a poet, many of the Psalms being attributed to him. The Hebrew derivation of the name is uncertain; it is said by some to represent a nursery word meaning ‘darling’. It is a very popular Jewish name, but is almost equally common among Gentiles in the English-speaking world. It is particularly common in Wales and Scotland, having been borne by the patron saint of Wales (see Dewi) and by two medieval kings of Scotland.

English: from the Middle English female personal name Annes, Old French Anes, vernacular form of Late Latin Agnes, which is in turn an adaptation of the Greek name Hagnē ‘pure’, ‘holy’. St. Agnes was a virgin martyr, one of those who suffered under the persecutions of Diocletian in 303 AD. Her name was associated by folk etymology with Latin agnus ‘lamb’, and in medieval art she is often depicted with a lamb (the lamb of God).