Frequency: (354880)
(number of times this surname appears in a sample database of 88.7 million names, representing one third of the 1997 US population)
Southern English: patronymic from David.
FOREBEARS: John Davis or Davys (c.1550-1605) was an English navigator who searched for the Northwest Passage.
By the 18th century there were numerous persons named Davis in America, including the jurist John Davis, born in 1761 in Plymouth, MA, and Henry Davis, a clergyman and college president, who was born in 1771 in East Hampton, NY. Jefferson Davis, born in 1808 in KY, was president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.
See the Key to the Dictionary or consult the General Introduction for further explanation.
