The Baby Name Wizard

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Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name David!

Comments and insights on the name David: | Edit

Alternate pronunciation (several languages other than English): dah-VEED.
One likely reason for this Biblical name's popularity is that it is spelled the same in many languages including: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Czech, Scandinavian and Dutch.

Personal experiences with the name David: | Edit

When I was in college in the late '80s, a frat held an annual "Dave and Jen" party where only Davids and Jennifers were invited. There was always a crowd. :-)

David is a family name. It was the name of my grandfather and great grandfather. I have three cousins who got the name. Two as the first name and one as a middle name. I was supposed to be named David had I been a boy. Had I been mom to a boy his middle name was going to be David.

Several teachers at my highschool are named david lawl xd

My dad's name is David. :)

Nicknames for David: | Edit

Dave, Davy, Daw, Taffy, Big D, Vid, Dav, V, Dov,Avi,

Meanings and history of the name David: | Edit

David was originally a Hebrew lullaby word equivalent to 'darling'. In the Bible David was the name of the boy who killed the Philistine giant Goliath with just a slingshot and subsequently became the greatest of all the kings of Israel and the author of many of the Psalms. The name was taken up by English speakers during the medieval period and it has remained one of the most popular of all boys' names ever since. It became especially well established in Wales, where it acquired further significance as the name of the 7th century St David, the patron saint of Wales, and also in Scotland, where it was famous as the name of two kings. David maintained its status as one of the five most popular boys' names among English speakers from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the United States David was one of the top ten names for boys born from 1936-1992, the number one name in 1960, and remains firmly in the top 20.

Famous real-life people named David: | Edit

Biblical King David
St David, patron saint of Wales
2 kings of Scotland - David I (1124-53 and David II (1329-71)
David Livingstone, Scottish missionary explorer to Africa
David Beckham, British footballer (soccer star)
David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel
David Bowie, British glam rock icon
David Cassidy, American singer and actor (The Partridge Family)
David Lloyd-George, British Prime Minister (1916-22)
David Wark (D.W.) Griffith, pioneering American film director (Birth of a Nation)
David Herbert (D.H.) Lawrence, British short story writer and novelist (Sons and Lovers)
David Hume, Scottish philosopher and economist
David Lean, British director (Lawrence of Arabia)
David Lynch, American director (Blue Velvet)
David Mamet, American playwright (Glengarry Glen Ross) and TV creator (The Unit)
David Petraeus, American general
David Sarnoff, Russian-American pioneer of film and television and the founder of the National Broadcast Company (NBC)
David O. Selznick, film/TV producer (Gone With The Wind)
David Niven, British actor
David Letterman, late-night TV host
Davy Crockett (1786-1836), frontiersman
David Duchovny, American actor (X-Files)
David Hasslehoff, actor/singer
David Byrne, Scottish-American musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the Talking Heads
David "Big Papi" Ortiz, Dominican-American MLB baseball player with the Boston Red Sox.

David in song, story & screen: | Edit

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens novel (1849-50)
David Balfour in the Robert Louis Stevenson novel Kidnapped (1886)
David, sculpture by Michelangelo
David, sculpture by Donatello
King David in the Bible, the slayer of Goliath and the most righteous king of Israel. Jesus Christ is described as one of his descendants.
"Dave" -- 1993 comedy starring Kevin Kline
"Meet Dave" -- 2008 comedy starring Eddie Murphy
"These Are the Daves I Know" -- The Kids in the Hall

Playing on the frequency of the name, children's writer Dr. Seuss wrote of Mrs. McCave whose 24 sons were all called Dave.

david was also a character in both verisons of the movie village of the damned

David Crane, son of Niles and Daphne in the television series 'Frasier' - the character was named after David Angell, the show's co-creator and executive producer, who died during the 9/11 attacks.