Davis Family History

English and Welsh: patronymic meaning ‘Dafydd's (son)’ equivalent to Welsh ap Dafydd the Welsh form of David. The spelling Davis is more typical in southwestern England northwards as far as Lancashire where the frequency of the surname largely reflects Welsh migration but may sometimes represent a native English surname based on Davy (compare Davies).

Davis (including in the sense 2 below) is the eighth most frequent surname in the US. It is also very common among African Americans. Irish and Scottish: adopted for Gaelic Mac Daibhéid ‘son of David’; see McDevitt.

Compare Davies. In some cases also an Americanized form (actually an adoption of the name in 1 above) of Jewish Davidovich and of its cognate Davidsohn.