(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 (chiefly Midlands and northern England, especially Yorkshire): patronymic from Hann or the byname Hand.
Irish: shortened Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó hAmhsaigh (see Hampson 2).
Irish: variant of McKittrick.
Respelling of Scandinavian Hansen or Hansson.
Jewish (Ashkenazic): metronymic from the female personal name Hanna.
FOREBEARS A family by the name of Hanson was established in America by John Hanson, one of four brothers sent there by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1642. They were grandsons of an Englishman who had married into the Swedish royal family; he was descended from a certain Roger de Rastrick, who had lived in Yorkshire in the 13th century.
