(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.
Irish: sometimes of English origin, but in County Kerry it is usually an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Duinnín (see Dineen).
English: patronymic from a variant of Dunn 2.
FOREBEARS Sir George Downing (1623–84), baronet, member of Parliament, and ambassador to the Netherlands in the time of both Cromwell and King Charles II, was the second graduate of the first class (1642) at Harvard College. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of Emmanuel Downing of the Inner Temple and his second wife, Lucy Winthrop, sister of John Winthrop. The family emigrated to New England in 1638 and settled at Salem, MA.