A Slavic and European form of David, from Hebrew meaning beloved.
Dawid is not a variant of David so much as its true original form. The name comes directly from the Biblical Hebrew דָּוִד, transliterated as Dawid, meaning 'beloved' — and it is the name borne by Israel's greatest king, the shepherd-poet whose psalms shaped Western literature, music, and spirituality for three millennia.
When ancient Hebrew was transmitted into Greek and Latin Bibles, the name became David, but communities that maintained closer ties to the original Hebrew or developed their own transliteration systems preserved the older spelling. Today Dawid is the standard form of the name in Polish, where it ranks among the most enduring classical names, and in Afrikaans, where it reflects the strong Dutch Reformed Protestant tradition of the Cape. It also remains in use among Ethiopian Jewish communities and in other African contexts where Biblical names arrived through independent translation traditions rather than through Latin.
The name's three-thousand-year history is astonishing in its breadth: from the caves of Adullam to Michelangelo's marble colossus to the townships of South Africa, Dawid has been carried by kings, artists, saints, and ordinary people across every inhabited continent. Choosing Dawid over David is a subtle but meaningful act — an acknowledgment of the name's ancient roots and the rich diversity of traditions that kept it alive.