(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.
Scottish and northern Irish: habitational name from what is now a deserted village in the parish of Barkby, Leicestershire. This is named from Old English hamel ‘crooked’ + dūn ‘hill’. Hamilton near Glasgow was founded by the Hamiltons and named after them. In Ireland, this name may have replaced Hamill in a few cases. It has also been used as the equivalent of the Irish (Cork) name Ó hUrmholtaigh.
FOREBEARS This name is borne by one of the most distinguished families of the Scottish nobility; they hold many titles, including the Marquessate and Dukedom of Hamilton, the Marquessate of Douglas, the Dukedom of Abercorn, and the Earldom of Haddington. They are descended from Walter Robert the Bruce in the 13th century. A member of this family was SirWilliam Hamilton (1730–1803), a British diplomat and archaeologist, whose wife, Lady Emma Hamilton (?1765–1815), became the mistress of Admiral Horatio Nelson. In the 16th century bearers of the name found their way to Russia, where they became naturalized; hence the Russian forms Gamentov, Khamentov, and Khomutov (the latter having been affected by folk etymological association with khomut ‘horse collar’). A branch of the family was established in Ireland by Sir Frederick Hamilton (died 1646), who served in the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus. He later became governor of Ulster, and his descendants were created Viscounts Boyne. The family have given their name to Newtownhamilton and Hamiltonsbaron in County Armagh. Another branch of the family was to be found in Denmark, where Henrik Albertsen Hamilton (1588–1648) was a noted Latin poet in his day. Debrabandere gives a 17th-century example of a Hamilton from Glasgow recorded in the Low Countries, where the name is found in the forms Hamelton and Hammerton.
