It is one of the largest asteroids; approximately tied for 7th place, to within measurement uncertainties, and the 5th or 6th most massive.

Davida is named after David Peck Todd, an astronomy professor at Amherst College.

Davida is approximately 270–310 km in diameter and comprises an estimated 1.5% of the total mass of the asteroid belt.

[9][10][d] It is a C-type asteroid, which means that it is dark in colouring with a carbonaceous chondrite composition.

The asteroid is not a dwarf planet: there are at least two promontories and at least one flat facet with 15-km deviations from a best-fit ellipsoid.