David (name)

David is a common masculine given name of Biblical Hebrew origin, as King David is a figure of central importance in the Hebrew Bible and in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic religious tradition.
 has the meaning of "beloved", from a root דּוֹד "dôwd", which had an etymological meaning of "to boil", but survives in Biblical Hebrew only in figurative usage "to love" and specifically a term for an uncle (father's brother). In Christian tradition, the name was adopted as Dawid, Greek , Latin . The Quranic spelling is .
David was adopted as a Christian name from an early period, e.g. David of Wales (6th century), David Saharuni (7th century), David I of Iberia (9th century).
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, 9 July (Russia), 26 August, 11 December and 30 December (Hungary, Latvia, Norway).
Hypocorisms.
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. The nickname Dave has been used as a name in its own right in the 19th and 20th centuries, at least in the United States. 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.
Other common English-language hypocorisms of the name David are Davey, Davie, and Davy. The Welsh Dafydd is also abbreviated Dewi, Dai and Daf.
In Ashkenazi Jewish culture, common hypocorisms of Dovid are Dovi and Dov. Dudi is a common hypocorism in Modern Hebrew.
Davo is also used as a nickname, and is quite common in Australia and Armenia, while the nickname Dato (for Davit) is popular in the country of Georgia.
Female forms.
Some female forms of the name are Daveigh, Davetta, Davida, and Davina. The girl's name Davinia may derive from David, but it has also been considered a derivation from the Gaelic Devin or a variant of Lavinia.