Davy
Masculine · “beloved”
Davy is given to both — 2,682 boys and 326 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Davy is David made friendly, and it has been doing that job in English for six hundred years: the medieval Daw, the Welsh Dai and the English Davy all come from the same shortening. The Hebrew name behind it belongs to a shepherd who became a king and is generally read as beloved.
How old is the name Davy?
Davy first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Davy alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 2,100 people named Davy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Davy most popular?
Davy peaked in 1955, reaching #525 nationally. Today it ranks #5045, 4,520 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From David to Davy
The story of Davy
David is one of the most-used names in the world, carried by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, and English shortened it in every century: Daw in the Middle Ages, which gave the surname Dawson, and Davy and Dave later. Davy became a name in its own right, particularly in Wales and in the American frontier, where a Tennessee congressman and folk hero fixed it in the national vocabulary. It went quiet after the nineteen-sixties and is only now being looked at again.
Meaning
beloved
Hebrew David, generally connected to a root meaning to love, giving beloved. An alternative reading takes it from an old Semitic word for a chieftain, which appears in some ancient inscriptions; the beloved reading is standard.
How the name formed
- David
- Davy
Related forms: Dai · David · Davi
Pronouncing Davy
DAY-vee
Two syllables, stress in front. There is no other reading in English.
Nicknames for Davy
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 195692 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #525reached in 1955
- Change vs 2023
- −20.8%19 in 2025, from 24
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.
Davy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dai in Welsh — related form
- David in English — related form
- Davi in French — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Davys among us
people named Davy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 89,899 born in 2025 was named Davy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Davy
- #5045
- Davy on the 2025 chart
- #791
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Davy went to 19 boys in 2025, but Davi is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 137, which makes it the 791st most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,254 places above the chart.
- Davi118
- Davy19
About 1 boy in 12,468 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 89,899 for Davy 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 Florian test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Davy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Florian climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Florian's path sketches the road Davy is walking now.
Davy 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
Davy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Davy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- David stands behind it as a formal option with one of the longest histories of any name.
- It is warm on first hearing, which is a rare thing in a name.
- Spelling and pronunciation match exactly; nobody will need it repeated.
- Nickname-names can feel light on a formal document unless the longer name is on the certificate.
- It carries a strong mid-century and frontier American flavor.
- Davy Jones's locker is a phrase everybody knows, and someone will mention it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Davy
Masculine · #5045 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Davys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Davy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Davy?
- Davy is one of 2 recorded spellings. Davi is the more common one — 118 births in 2025 against 19 for Davy.
- How popular is the name Davy in 2025?
- Davy ranks #5045 among US boy names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Davy?
- About 1 in every 89,899 US boys born in 2025 was named Davy — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Davy with classmates?
- Davy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Davy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Silver#5045 · Daymon#5045 · Thierry#5045 · Mehmet#5045 · Tyrel#5045 · Teague#5045 · Zeyad#5045 · Gardner#5045
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Davy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Davy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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