(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.
Welsh: from the personal name Dewi, Welsh form of David.
Anglicized form of a French Huguenot name of uncertain form and origin. Traditionally it is recorded as Douai, from a place in northern France, but it could also be from Old Norman French du we(z) ‘of the ford’, from a variant of standard French gué ‘ford’.
FOREBEARS Thomas Duee of Sandwich, Kent, England, emigrated to Dorchester, MA, in 1634, where his name is recorded as Dewey. Another line is apparently descended from a Huguenot family called Douai, who settled in Kent, England, in the latter half of the 16th century. The connection, if any, between the two Kentish families is not clear.
