Davis
Meaning
from the English surname Davis, "son of David" (David: Hebrew doḏ, "beloved" or "uncle")
The story
Davis is David one generation removed: the English surname means son of David, and David itself is Hebrew for beloved, or uncle, the sources honestly say both. As a first name it has been in the American records every decade since the 1890s, mostly a few hundred to a thousand boys at a time, then a modern climb to about 7,100 in the 2000s and about 6,200 in the 2010s, with about 2,800 so far this decade. Brazil knows it as a given name too, about 1,500 in the census. It reads as the surname-name done conservatively: familiar from a thousand nameplates, easy to carry into any boardroom, and secretly one of the oldest terms of endearment in the book.
Davis around the world
One shared root links 7 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Hebrew Dawid "beloved", the shepherd king
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Davis peaked in the 2010s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,536 people · the #6,151 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 125,000 · median age 37
Among people named Davis living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 33 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Davis
Most people given the name Davis in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Davis deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Davis truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Davis fits with your family’s names and surname.
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