(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 and German: nickname for someone with a deformed hand or who had lost one hand, from Middle English hand, Middle High German hant, found in such appellations as Liebhard mit der Hand (Augsburg 1383).
Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname from German Hand ‘hand’ (see 1).
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Flaithimh (see Guthrie), resulting from an erroneous association of the Gaelic name with the Gaelic word lámh ‘hand’. It is used as an English equivalent for several other names of Gaelic origin too, e.g. Claffey, Glavin, and McClave.
Dutch: from a variant of hont ‘dog’, ‘hound’, either a derogatory nickname, or a habitational name for someone living at a house distinguished by the sign of a dog.
