David Barlow

(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: habitational name from any of several places called Barlow, especially those in Lancashire and West Yorkshire. The former is named with Old English bere ‘barley’ + hlāw ‘hill’; the latter probably has as its first element the derived adjective beren or the compound bere-ærn ‘barn’. There is also a place of this name in Derbyshire, named with Old English bār ‘boar’ or bere ‘barley’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’, and one in Shropshire, which is from bere ‘barley’ + lēah.