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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

DavidIn Hebrew: דוד · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: דָּוִדRomanization: davíd

David (Hebrew: דוד) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 97,354 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 1,842 boys and ranked #3. Its peak year was 2024, with 1,842 babies.

People in Israel
97,354
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
1,842
rank #3
Peak year
2024
1,842 babies
USA, 2025
6,794
rank #35

Writing and saying David

In Hebrew letters the name is דוד, read right to left. David is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "davíd" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • David (the second king of Judah and Israel, the successor of King Saul in the Hebrew Bible; the son of Jesse and the father of Nathan and King Solomon)
  • a male given name, David
From Proto-Semitic verbal root d-w-d ~ w-d-d "to love".

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

David by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

David: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

David in English-speaking countries

David in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States20256,794#351955 (86,306)
United Kingdom2025788#721997 (3,043)
England and Wales2025712#731996 (2,517)
Scotland202558#921979 (2,024)
Northern Ireland202518#1261997 (246)
Ireland2025114#461980 (1,740)
British Columbia202339#841960 (880)
Alberta202585#371980 (537)
Quebec202583#891982 (1,450)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for David has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about David

How do you write David in Hebrew?

David is written דוד in Hebrew (with vowel points: דָּוִד). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "davíd".

How many people in Israel are named David?

97,354 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name דוד: 20 women and 97,334 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is David a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 100.0% of the people named דוד are men.

What does the name David mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "David (the second king of Judah and Israel, the successor of King Saul in the Hebrew Bible; the son of Jesse and the father of Nathan and King Solomon)" Etymology: From Proto-Semitic verbal root d-w-d ~ w-d-d "to love".

Is David used outside Israel?

The name David appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 6,794 boys were given it in 2025 (#35), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 788 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.