(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.
Short form: Dave.
Pet forms: Davy, Davey, Davie (mainly Scottish); Dai.
Cognates: Irish: Dáibhídh. Scottish Gaelic: Dàibhidh. Welsh: Dafydd, Dewi. German, Dutch: David. French: David. Spanish: David. Italian: Davide. Russian: David. Polish: Dawid. Czech: David. Finnish: Taavi. Hungarian: Dávid.
English: nickname for a man with some fancied resemblance to a he-goat (Old English bucc(a)) or a male deer (Old English bucc). Old English Bucc(a) is found as a personal name, as is Old Norse Bukkr. Names such as Walter le Buk (Somerset 1243) are clearly nicknames.
English: topographic name for someone who lived near a prominent beech tree, such as Peter atte Buk (Suffolk 1327), from Middle English buk ‘beech’ (from Old English bōc).
German: from a personal name, a short form of Burckhard (see Burkhart).
North German and Danish: nickname for a fat man, from Middle Low German būk ‘belly’. Compare Bauch.
German: variant of Bock.
German: variant of Puck in the sense ‘defiant’, ‘spiteful’, or ‘stubborn’.
German: topographic name from a field name, Buck ‘hill’.
FOREBEARS Emanuel Buck came from England to Plymouth Colony in the 1640s and in 1647 settled in Wethersfield, CT.