(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 and Scottish: habitational name from any of the many places called Mor(e)ton, named in Old English as ‘settlement (tūn) by or on a marsh or moor (mōr)’.
Swedish: variant of Martin.
French: contracted form of Moreton 2.
Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames or of various other non-English names bearing some kind of similarity to it.
FOREBEARS The name Morton was established early in North America. George Morton (1585–1624), one of the Pilgrims, was probably born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England. He and his son Nathaniel (b. 1613 in Leiden, the Netherlands) settled in Plymouth in 1623. John Morton (c.1724–77), one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born in PA, of Swedish descent. His grandfather, Morten Mortenson, had emigrated from Gothenburg in 1654.
