(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.
German: nickname from the small medieval coin known as the häller or heller because it was first minted (in 1208) at the Swabian town of (Schwäbisch) Hall. Compare Hall.
Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from Schwäbisch Hall.
German: topographic name for someone living by a field named as ‘hell’ (see Helle 3).
English: topographic name for someone living on a hill, from southeastern Middle English hell + the habitational suffix -er.
Dutch: from a Germanic personal name composed of the elements hild ‘strife’ + hari, heri ‘army’.
Jewish (Ashkenazic): nickname for a person with fair hair or a light complexion, from an inflected form, used before a male personal name, of German hell ‘light’, ‘bright’, Yiddish hel.