(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 (chiefly Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands) and Scottish: occupational name for a weaver, early Middle English webber, agent derivative of Webb.
FOREBEARS The name Webster was brought to North America from England independently by several different bearers in the 17th and 18th centuries. One John Webster settled in Ipswich, MA, in 1635; another John Webster (d. 1661), ancestor of the lexicographer Noah Webster, emigrated to Cambridge, MA, in about 1631 and later became one of the founders of the colony of CT, of which he was appointed governor in 1656.Daniel Webster (1782–1852), politician and orator, was born in Salisbury, NH, a descendant of Thomas Webster, a prominent 17th-century citizen of Ipswich, MA, whose family had settled there around 1635, while he was still a child.
