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The first name 
David

David is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.

The name David is very popular!

The first name David is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #20 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named David, accounting for approximately 0.60 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 3,617,592 people – children, adults and seniors – named David living in the United States, which is approximately 1.1 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
David

What does the name 
David mean?

The first name David has a Hebrew origin as in King David, a figure of great importance in the Tanakh and in the other great religious traditions such as Christianity or Islam. The name means ‘beloved’, derived from the root ‘dôwd’, which survives in biblical Hebrew only in the figurative use ‘to love’.

By the way… In the Bible, it is the third most frequently mentioned name after Moses and Abraham, with over 1,000 mentions, and, as in the Koran, it refers exclusively to King David.

Many famous people share the name David

A heroic singer

David Bowie (1947 - 2016)
David Bowie, born as David Robert Jones, was one of the most influential pop musicians oft he last century. In the 1970s, Bowie performed as his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, landing hits such as 'Changes' and 'Life on Mars?'

A special actor

David Duchovny (*1960)
David Duchovny is an american actor, writer, producer, director, novelist, and singer-songwriter who is best known for his roles as special agent Fox Mulder in 'The X-Files' and Hank Moody in 'Californication'. The 90s horror series 'The X-Files' was so popular that it ran for nine seasons

A late night achiever

David Letterman (*1947)
David Letterman is a former television host and comedian. He is best known for hosting the late-night talk show 'The Late Show with David Letterman.' He started his career in 1966 as an anchor on student radio. He first appeared on television as a weather forecaster, where he attracted attention with inventive gags. His first appearance as a comedian was on Johnny Carson's 'The Tonight Show'. He quickly gained a reputation for his offbeat sense of humor, so that he hosted his first own late night show in 1982. For 33 years, Letterman was a fixture on American late-night television until his retirement in 2015. He was a a major influence on many other talk formats.

A glamorous soccer player

David Beckham (*1975)
David Beckham is a former professional English soccer player. He is considered one of the greatest and most iconic players of his generation. Beckham has played for several succesful teams such as Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain. In addition, he is also known as a media personality. He had numerous appearances in commercials and was often in the yellow press because of his marriage to ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. Because of his penchant for cosmetics and perfume, he coined the term 'metrosexual' in the early 2000s.

Second most famous magician

David Copperfield (*1956)
Admittedly, Harry Potter is probably the most famous wizard in the world, but still he comes close: David Copperfield. The magician who is considered a living legend is born under the name David Seth Kotkin. Since he was 18, he is acting under the pseudonym David Copperfield a tribute to Charles Dickens' novel. He performed magic as a child and convinced the world with deceptively real illusions. His most famous tricks include the disappearance of a Learjet (1981) and the vanishing and reappearance of the Statue of Liberty (1983). He achieved 11 Guinness World Records. Copperfield owns his own island, Musha Cay, in the southern Bahamas. He had a daily show in Las Vegas before the Covid 19 pandemic.

An expensive artist

David Hockney (*1937)
The English artist David Hockney is one oft he most influential visual artists of the 20th century. He has been inspired by various artists and experienced several stylistic changes. Naturalism and Pop Art as well as artists such as Picasso and Matisse made a major contribution to his creative development. He is best known for his 'Swimming Pool' series. The most iconic, the 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) ' (1972) achieved a sale price of $90.3 million at an auction at Christie's on November 15 in 2018, which makes him one of the most expensive artists of all time. Hockney is a self-confessed smoker and dachshund fan.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name David, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name David? Are you also called David? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

A capital

David is the capital of the province of Chiriqui in western Panama. In the past, it served as a rest stop on the long 'Camino Real' that connected the rest of Central America with Panama City.

You can watch the sky...

on the 38th floor of the David Stott Building in Detroit. It is named after the business man David E. Stott and was completed in 1929. It measures approximately 440 ft.

You can pilgrimage...

to the grave of Biblical figure King David which is meant to be on Mount Zion in the City of David, an archaeological site close to modern Jerusalem.

David -
consistently popular

The first name David is a phenomenon: its popularity shows a certain consistency over the years. It ranked worst in 1903, but at least once made it to the top of the most popular first names, namely 1960 - at that time 86,149 parents named their newborn David. However, there was not a single year in which the name was given less than 5 times (only then are names included in the statistics). This first name therefore belongs to the exclusive group of 442 boys‘ names that parents have given their newborn sons every year since records began in 1880.

In years where the graph has no value, the name David was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

2022: Position 32 for David

In 2022, 7,741 parents named their newborn son David - making it the No. 32 most popular boys‘ name in the U.S. that year. Incidentally, the first name David performed worst in the year 1903, when the number of baby boys given this name was 716 and it only reached position 33.

David -
a top 10 name in Arizona, at home in the entire USA

Regardless of where you live in the US, chances are you know someone called David. Because: There are men and boys named David in every state in the USA. If this does not sound particularly spectacular to you, you should know that of the nearly 50,000 different male first names that occur in the USA, only 386 are recorded in each individual state, so the name David is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 10 of the most popular male first names, for example in Arizona, where David ranks on place 2, making it one of the most common male first names in the entire state. The greatest chance of meeting David, however, is in Rhode Island, where one in 32 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 46 men and boys and in Louisiana, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 60 men and boys for their name before you once get David as an answer.

David has 5 letters 
and begins with a D

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter D is a quite popular first letter for boys’ names. That’s because 8.5% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters J and A are more common for boys' names.

With five letters, the name David is comparatively short. In fact, 17.0% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly five letters. Only 7% of all first names are even shorter, while 75% have more than five letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Therefore: As 8.5% of all boys' names start with a D, this initial letter occurs nearly 2.5-times as often as all 26 letters on average – and the most common one of all the boys’ names starting with D is David.

Other names with 
D, a, v, i and d

If you take all the letters in the name David – D, a, v, i and d – and put them together again, you can form another name, such as Daivd.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say David

If your name is David and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name David

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name David, you can simply say:

Dinosaur

Apple

Violin

Igloo

Dinosaur

This is how the name David is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write David in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

David

David

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is David

Just use American Sign Language!

The name David is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

D
A
V
I
D

Have you ever waved the name David

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

D
A
V
I
D

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. David sounds like this: