(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: Anglicized form of the Gaelic personal name Eachann (earlier Eachdonn, already confused with Norse Haakon), composed of the elements each ‘horse’ + donn ‘brown’.
English: found in Yorkshire and Scotland, where it may derive directly from the medieval personal name. According to medieval legend, Britain derived its name from being founded by Brutus, a Trojan exile, and Hector was occasionally chosen as a personal name, as it was the name of the Trojan king's eldest son. The classical Greek name, Hektōr, is probably an agent derivative of Greek ekhein ‘to hold back’, ‘hold in check’, hence ‘protector of the city’.
German, French, and Dutch: from the personal name (see 2 above). In medieval Germany, this was a fairly popular personal name among the nobility, derived from classical literature. It is a comparatively rare surname in France.
