(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.
Swedish (Ström) and Danish (Strøm): from ström ‘current’, probably an arbitrarily adopted ornamental name but possibly a topographic name for someone who lived by a river.
Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads so named from Old Norse straumr ‘current’, ‘stream’.
German: variant of Strahm.
Dutch: from Middle Dutch stroom, of uncertain meaning.
Polish: topographic name for someone who lived on a steep slope, from strom ‘slope’ or stromy ‘precipitous’.
Czech: topographic name or nickname from strom ‘tree’.
Jewish (Ashkenazic): topographic or ornamental name, from German Strom ‘stream’, ‘river’.