David Arsenault

(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.

French: occupational name for a gunmaker, a seller of guns, or the keeper of an arsenal. The French word arsenal (Italian arsenale) is from Arabic dār aṣ-ṣinā῾a ‘house of fabrication’, ‘workshop’. This spelling of the surname, which is much more common in North America than in France, has been assimilated to that of other French surnames ending in -ault, for example Thibault.