(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: habitational name from any of various places, for example in Devon, Dorset, Essex, Kent, and Warwickshire, so named from Old English lang, long ‘long’ + dūn ‘hill’.
FOREBEARS Samuel Langdon, Harvard College president in 1774–80, was born in Boston, MA, in 1723 but lived out his years in Hampton Falls, NH. Three of his children left descendants. His grandfather Philip (b. 1646) had came from Braunton in Devon, England, and was married in Andover, Essex Co., MA, in 1684, according to family historians. Another early Langdon immigrant was Tobias Langdon, who came to America before 1660 and settled in Portsmouth, NH. His great-grandson John was a revolutionary war leader, U.S.senator, and NH governor.
