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David-James

Boy name · 6 babies recorded · 1974–2025

David-James: 6 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to boys, peaking at 3 births in 2011.

The name David-James brings together two enduring biblical classics: David, from the Hebrew *Dawid* meaning “beloved,” and James, the English form of *Ya'akov* meaning “supplanter.” It’s a modern compound name that has appeared in Scottish birth records since the 1970s, often chosen to honour both a father and grandfather or to give a child a strong, traditional double-barrelled identity. Famous bearers of the separate names are legion—King David of Israel, naturalist David Attenborough, and the biblical apostle James, as well as fictional James Bond. While no single famous person bears the exact hyphenated form, footballer David James shares the two components. Place-wise, St David’s in Wales and St James’s in London echo the roots. In Scotland, hyphenated names like David-James reflect a wider trend of blending family heritage into a single given name.

Boy 2 of 52 years

Peak year
20113 babies
Latest (2021)
#7203 babies
Total births
6since 2011
5-year trend
≈ stablevs prior 5y
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2011 · 3
Births per year in Scotland. Missing years had a count of 2 or fewer (suppressed by NRS).