David (name)

David (name)

David is a common male given name and surname.

The name "David" is derived from the ancient times of Mesopotamia and used as the Biblical Hebrew name דָּוִד (Dāwīḏ ; ), meaning "Darling". "Dudi" is a common nickname for David in Hebrew, in the same way Dave and Davy are in English.

The Arabic and Assyrian versions are Daud (pronounced "Da-ood") and Dāwūd داود .

Name days are celebrated on 8 February (for David IV of Georgia), 1 March (for St. David of Wales) and 29 December (for King David), as well as 25 June (St. David of Sweden), 26 June, 26 August, 11 December, and 30 December (Hungary, Latvia, Norway).

David is often shortened to "Davey/Davie/Davy" (additionally, in Wales, such variants as "Dafydd" and "Dewi" and such diminutives as "Dai", "Daf" and "Taff/Taffy" are fairly common, although "Dai" was formerly a name in its own right, meaning "shining" in Welsh, prior to the reign of King Henry VII). The oldest, most popular and most commonly used diminutive form in the English speaking countries of "David" is "Dave", which first appeared in written form in the 16th century (but is probably much older). In Jewish culture, including outside Israel, it is common to apply the nicknames "Dovi" and "Dov". The nickname "Dave" has been used as a name in its own right in the 19th and 20th centuries, at least in the U.S. At the height of its popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s, the name Dave was bestowed upon more than 3,000 infants each year. "Davo" is also used as a nickname, and is quite common in Armenia and Australia while nickname 'Dato' for 'Davit' is popular in Georgia.

Another less common variant is "Daveth", the origin of which is uncertain (but could be an anglicised form of the Welsh "Dafydd").

Female equivalents of the name David include "Davida" (no longer in common usage) and "Davina", the latter of which is very popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The girl's name "Davinia" may also have originated from David, though some have argued it is actually the female version of the Gaelic name "Devin".