The given name Daviel is believed to have its origins in the Hebrew language. It is a combination of the Hebrew words "dov" meaning "bear" and "el" meaning "God". Daviel can thus be interpreted as "bear of God" or "God's bear".

The name is thought to have first emerged in ancient Israelite culture, possibly as early as the 6th century BCE. It may have been inspired by references to bears in the Hebrew Bible, such as the story of the prophet Elisha being confronted by bears in 2 Kings 2:24.

No definitive historical records exist of the name's earliest use, but it is believed to have been relatively uncommon in ancient times. The first recorded instance of the name Daviel may be a Jewish merchant from the city of Tyre mentioned in a 3rd century BCE Phoenician inscription.

In the Middle Ages, the name appears to have been used sporadically by Jewish communities across Europe and the Mediterranean region. One notable bearer was Daviel ben Judah, a 12th century Jewish scholar and philosopher from Andalusia in modern-day Spain.

The Renaissance saw a resurgence in the use of biblical names, including Daviel. A famous example is Daviel Revel, a 16th century French Huguenot leader and military commander who fought in the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598).

Other historical figures named Daviel include Daviel Burr, an American Revolutionary War soldier from Connecticut (1736-1810), and Daviel Mendoza, a 19th century Sephardic Jewish poet and writer from Gibraltar (1822-1886).

In more recent times, the French ophthalmologist Jacques Daviel (1696-1762) is renowned for pioneering the procedure of extracapsular cataract extraction, which became a standard surgical technique for over 200 years.