Nicknames for David
30 ideas for David — the short forms people actually use, plus cute, funny and gamer versions. Copy any of them in one click.
- Dave the near-universal short form
- Davey the affectionate form
- Davie the Scottish spelling
- Dai the Welsh short form
- Dav the blunt clip
- Dave-O the Australian ribbing form
- Dafydd the Welsh form
- Dawid the Hebrew and Polish spelling
- Davide the Italian form
- Davit the Georgian and Armenian form
- Dawud the Arabic form
- Dovid the Yiddish form
- Dima the Slavic short form used for David too
- Davo the Australian stretch
- Davy the y spelling
- D initial only, in group chats
- Big D the team-sport version
- Dave-Bear the family affectionate pattern
- Dai-Dai doubled, family use
- Davey Jones the locker joke, always made
- Beloved what the Hebrew name means
- Goliath said ironically to the tallest friend
- Dave the Rave the rhyming tease
- Daveed the French and Hebrew stress, said as a name
- Taffy the Welsh nickname built on Dafydd
- Davi David, cut where people naturally stop saying it.
- Da-da The opening sound of David, doubled.
- Dreamy David Shares the "D" sound with David.
- David Rapid "Rapid" rhymes with David.
- Day A short form people genuinely use for David.
About the name David.
Beloved is the standard gloss on the Hebrew, and the king who wore it is one of very few biblical figures with a full biography attached: shepherd, harpist, giant-killer, adulterer, poet. Jewish families kept it in continuous use for two thousand years while Christian Europe used it in fits and starts, and Wales built its own version, Dafydd, around a sixth-century patron saint whose feast day still fills lapels with daffodils. American use crested around 1960, a step behind Michael, and stayed enormous through the 1980s. The decline since has been real but slower than Robert's. Nearly every bearer gets shortened to Dave eventually, and plenty spend adulthood toggling between the two depending on who is asking.
Comfortable and slightly worn, like a jacket that fits. The long form has a formality the short form immediately dissolves, and Dave has become such a generic stand-in for an ordinary bloke that British comedy leans on it constantly. Very little pretension attaches to any version of it.
Most popular around 1960. Based on US birth records.
- Origin
- Hebrew
- Meaning
- beloved
- Syllables
- Da·vid
- Used as
- a boys’ name
David around the world.
These are the real forms David takes in other languages, which often make excellent nicknames in their own right.
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Dafydd
Welsh
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Dawid
Hebrew
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Davide
Italian
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Davit
Georgian
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David
Hungarian
Famous people called David.
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David Bowie
English singer who reinvented rock
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David Attenborough
British natural history broadcaster
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David Hockney
British painter of swimming pools
Questions about the name David
Dave, Davey or something else? +
Dave is almost universal among adults. Davey and Davie survive in Scottish and Northern English usage and inside families. The Welsh Dai is a real short form of Dafydd rather than an English invention, and it stays largely within Wales.
What does the name David mean? +
Beloved, from a Hebrew root connected to affection. Some scholars have proposed a link to an ancient Semitic word for chieftain, but beloved remains the standard reading and matches how the biblical text treats the character it belongs to.
How popular is David these days? +
Much less than in 1960, when it trailed only Michael. It held a top ten position for around forty years and now sits in the twenties or thirties. It is common enough that most people know several, but it is no longer a name given to many babies.
What can you call a David who dislikes Dave? +
Options are thin, which is the honest answer. Some bearers use their initials, some go by a surname, and some simply correct people until the full form sticks. Davey is softer but often reads as childish, and the international forms rarely transfer into English settings.