DavidBoy Name — Meaning & Origin

David is a boy's name of Hebrew origin — from the Hebrew Dawid, meaning 'beloved.' It is one of the most significant names in the Hebrew Bible: David, the shepherd boy who killed Goliath and became the greatest king of Israel, turned the name into a symbol of courage, faith, and leadership. From Hebrew it passed into Greek and Latin essentially unchanged, then spread through Christian Europe alongside the Bible. The name reached Wales early, where Saint David became the country's patron saint, and it became deeply embedded in Scottish culture through David I of Scotland and the royal line that followed.

David carries one of the heaviest biblical legacies of any name. King David is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — as the composer of the Psalms, the founder of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and an ancestor of Jesus in Christian tradition. Michelangelo's David is arguably the most famous sculpture in the world. In the 20th century: David Bowie, David Beckham, David Attenborough, and President David Eisenhower (Dwight D. Eisenhower's given name was David). In Wales, Saint David's Day on March 1st is the national holiday, marked by leeks and daffodils. Few names carry quite such a range across religion, royalty, art, and sport.

David is associated with a particular kind of courage — not the flashy, aggressive kind, but the determined, focused kind that comes from someone who knows what they are doing and why. The biblical David is an underdog who wins through skill and conviction, not brute force, and that quality has stuck to the name. In practice, Davids are often described as warm, capable, and quietly reliable — people who lead by doing rather than by declaring. The nickname Dave softens it without losing any of the underlying solidity.

David peaked at #1 in the US, one of the most dominant runs any name has had in American naming history. It also peaked at #32 in the UK and #4 in Canada. Today it sits around the top 30 in the US — still genuinely popular, respected across every generation, but no longer at the very top. David has the rare quality of being recognized and well-regarded in essentially every English-speaking culture simultaneously, which makes it a name with no regional surprises: it travels well.