David is an evergreen classic for boys.  But what’s the feminine equivalent?

Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting Dava as Name of the Day.

If you live in the US, you know someone named David.  Probably lots of someones.  The name has always been in the US Top 30, ranked #1, #2 or #3 in the 1960s and today stands at #14.  Besides John, James, Joseph and William, very few names can boast a more impressive record of use.

And why not?  David is a great name.  He’s the legendary Old Testament King who took down Goliath, and has been worn by saints, philosophers, explorers, literary characters and more ever since.  His meaning – beloved, from the Hebrew dwd – is appealing, too.

But David hasn’t translated easily into a feminine equivalent.  Dava appears in the census records pretty steadily, without ever peaking into the US Top 1000.  And yet, many of those records indicate that Dava might actually be Dara.  (In a handwritten ledger, it would be an easy mistake.)  Others appear to be male.  But some are clearly women named Dava, including the lucky Ms. Dava Davis of Mahoning, Ohio, as of the 1920 census.

There are two possible pronunciations – Ava with a “d” in front, or DAH vah, which is the pronunciation used by a tiny town in Scotland.

If we turn to famous Davas, two come to mind.

First, there’s DC Comic’s Dava Sbörsc, a martial artist from the fictional nation of Tbliska.  She and Robin – of Batman and Robin fame – palled around while studying with the Iron Master.  While her storyline is interesting, she’s certainly not well-known.  Given the continued mining of the Batman universe for the big screen, the possibility remains that Dava’s story could become better known.

But the Dava that sprung to mind for me is Dava Sobel, the writer.  She’s best known for explaining scientific concepts and history, like in her prize-winning 1995 Longitude or 2000′s Galileo’s Daughter.  The first was adapted for television by A&E – an unusual accomplishment for a nonfiction work about science!  (She rhymes her name with Ava.)

Of course, Dava is far from the only possible feminine form for David, and she’s never appeared in the US Top 1000.  The more widely accepted version is probably Davina, a name that appeared in the US Top 1000 a few times in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and is said to have originated in Scotland.  Today, Davina (pronounced dah VEEN nah) would fit right in with Olivia and Alexandra.

Inevitably, you can also find girls called Davida, Davinia, Davena, Davette, Davidette, Davianne and Daveigh.  But Dava and Davina seem like the most sophsticated options.  Parents might reserve Dava as a diminutive for the longer name, or bestow it independently.

Of course, with Ava in the US Top Ten, your little Dava might tire of repeating “it-sounds-like-Ava-with-a-D.”  Or she might find that sharing sounds with a popular name makes for the perfect choice – familiar, but still slightly distinctive.