(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: from a pet form of David.
English: from the Middle English personal name Day(e) or Dey(e), Old English Dæi, apparently from Old English dæg ‘day’, perhaps a short form of Old English personal names such as Dægberht and Dægmund. Reaney, however, points to the Middle English word day(e), dey(e) ‘dairy maid’, ‘(female) servant’ (from Old English dæge, cognate with Old Norse deigja ‘female servant’, ultimately from a root meaning ‘to knead’, and related to the word for dough), which he says came to be used for a servant of either sex.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Deaghaidh (see O’Dea).
Scottish: from an Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Daìdh, a colloquial form of David.
Welsh: from Dai, a pet form of the personal name Dafydd, Welsh form of David.
FOREBEARS This name was brought independently from many parts of Britain to New England by many bearers from the 17th century onward. Robert Day was one of the founders of Hartford, CT, (coming from Cambridge, MA, with Thomas Hooker) in 1635.
