Davi
Feminine · “Hebrew "beloved”
Davi is given to both — 634 girls and 2,058 boys since 1880. See Davi as a boy nameSee other names given to both
The most famous king in the Bible has a name nobody can pin down. Beloved is the traditional reading of David, but the name may instead be a title — a word for a leader or commander appears in Bronze Age documents from Mari, and scholars have argued about it for a century.
How old is the name Davi?
Davi first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Davi alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 600 people named Davi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Davi most popular?
Davi peaked in 1969, reaching #4198 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 3,687 places below that high. See the whole 1969 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Dawid to Davi
The story of Davi
The Mari archives, discovered in Syria in the 1930s, contain thousands of Akkadian tablets from a Bronze Age kingdom, and among the words in them is one read by some scholars as dawidum, possibly a military title. Whether it has anything to do with the biblical name is disputed and the reading itself has been challenged. What is not disputed is that the traditional gloss, beloved, rests on a plausible Hebrew root rather than on any statement in the text — the Bible offers no etymology for David, unlike Isaac, Jacob and Moses. Davi is the standard Portuguese spelling and is currently one of the most popular boys' names in Brazil; the American female figures peak in 1969.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew "beloved", though not securely
David is traditionally read as beloved, from a root d-w-d that gives dod, a beloved or an uncle. A competing proposal identifies it with a word appearing in the eighteenth-century BC Mari letters that may mean a leader or general, which would make David a title rather than a personal name. Neither is settled. Davi is the Portuguese form and is used in America for both sexes.
How the name formed
- Dawid
- David
- Davi
Related forms: Davi · David · דוד
Pronouncing Davi
DAH-vee
Two syllables, stress on the first in American use. Portuguese Davi stresses the second, dah-VEE, and Brazilian speakers say it that way.
Nicknames for Davi
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 202425 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4198reached in 1969
- Change vs 2024
- −48.0%13 in 2025, from 25
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Davi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Davi in Portuguese — same name
- David in English — related form
- דוד in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Davis among us
people named Davi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Davi
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Davi
- #7885
- Davi on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Davi went to 13 girls in 2025, but Davy is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,958 places above the chart.
- Davy20
- Davi13
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Davi itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jeany test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Davi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jeany climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jeany's path sketches the road Davi is walking now.
Davi sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Davi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Davi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of the best-known figures in three religious traditions.
- It is short, two syllables and easy to say.
- It is a settled Portuguese form rather than an invention.
- The meaning is genuinely contested despite the familiar gloss.
- In Portuguese and in America it is chiefly a male name.
- English and Portuguese stress it differently.
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What they receive
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Davi
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Davis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Davi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Davi?
- Davi is one of 2 recorded spellings. Davy is the more common one — 20 births in 2025 against 13 for Davi.
- How popular is the name Davi in 2025?
- Davi ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Davi?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Davi — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Davi with classmates?
- Davi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Davi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Davi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Davi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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