David
- Pronunciation
- [Da-vid]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Dearly Loved
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name David
David descends from the Hebrew Dawid, traditionally interpreted as "beloved" — likely from the root dod (uncle, beloved). The biblical David is the second king of ancient Israel (c. 1010–970 BCE), the slayer of Goliath, the composer of many Psalms, the unifier of the Israelite tribes, and the dynastic ancestor of the line that — in Christian tradition — culminates in Jesus. Few personal names anywhere in the world carry as much religious, historical, and cultural weight.
David is recognized in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (where he appears as the prophet Dawud), and the name's Western diffusion has been continuous since at least the 9th century. Notable bearers across history include the patron saint of Wales (Saint David, 6th century), Renaissance painter Michelangelo's David (the sculpture, not a person — though the name's choice was deliberate), philosopher David Hume, naturalist David Attenborough, and contemporary musicians David Bowie and David Byrne.
David held a US top-20 boys' rank in every year of the SSA's 145-year record, briefly cracking the top 5 in the early 1960s. The name's appeal is its perfect tonal balance: religiously and culturally universal, two firm syllables, easy to pair with virtually any middle and last name, and respectful but not heavy. Common nicknames Dave and Davy each carry distinct American eras (Dave more compact and adult, Davy warmer and informal); the rarer Davi is modern Brazilian/Portuguese. International forms include Davide (Italian), Davíd and Dávid (Spanish, Hungarian), Daud and Dawud (Arabic), and the Welsh patron-saint form Dewi.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About David
US Popularity History (1880–2025)
Annual US births named David by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1955 with 86,301 boys named David (boy rank #2 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #35 for boys (6,794 US births). That's 33 places below its 1955 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is David Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For David the strongest states are New York, Texas, New Jersey.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #13 | 6,350 |
| 2 | Texas | #17 | 9,793 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #20 | 2,592 |
| 4 | Maryland | #22 | 1,553 |
| 5 | California | #23 | 10,987 |
| 6 | Florida | #23 | 5,158 |
| 7 | Arizona | #24 | 1,759 |
| 8 | Georgia | #24 | 2,513 |
| 9 | Washington | #24 | 1,808 |
| 10 | Alabama | #26 | 1,137 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | #81 | 138 |
| 2 | South Dakota | #79 | 141 |
| 3 | West Virginia | #79 | 256 |
| 4 | New Hampshire | #75 | 181 |
| 5 | Maine | #67 | 177 |
| 6 | Vermont | #65 | 63 |
| 7 | Montana | #65 | 157 |
| 8 | Minnesota | #64 | 841 |
| 9 | Wisconsin | #55 | 902 |
| 10 | Rhode Island | #55 | 182 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for David in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named David
12 notable figures from history and culture who share the name David.
- David Attenborough — TV Show Host (1926)
- David Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist.
- David Ben-Gurion was the first prime minister of Israel.
- David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician who became the first blind person to hold a ministerial position in Great Britain.
- David Boreanaz — TV Actor (1969)
- David Brenner — Comedian (1936)
- David Brinkley was a well-known American newscaster and journalist.
- David Brooks is a Canadian born American journalist, social analyst and leading political commentator.
- David Brudnoy was an American talk radio host, famous for his ‘The David Brudnoy Show’ which aired on WBZ-AM station.
- David Byrne — Rock Singer (1952)
- David Cameron — Politician (1966)
- David Copperfield — Magician (1956)
Looking for names like David?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare David to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for David against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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