David Lum

(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.

1. English: habitational name from places in Lancashire and West Yorkshire called Lumb, both apparently originally named with Old English lum(m) ‘pool’. The word is not independently attested, but appears also in Lomax and Lumley, and may be reflected in the dialect term lum denoting a well for collecting water in a mine. In some instances the name may be topographical for someone who lived by a pool, Middle English lum(m).