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Our Surnames G
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G H
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GAIR. A
Scottish name, from the Gaelic gearr, “short”.
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GAISH. Said to be the same as WACE and a lot more similar names beginning G and
W, the two initials being commonly interchanged, or even compounded as in the
Welsh Gwillim. (see GAUBERT). It all comes from an ancient given name, Wace
or Gace with equivalents in most old European languages. G-forms of the
name are more likely to be from French than from British or Saxon roots.
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However, gaish is also the Arabic word for army and it is reported that
male family members tend to be dark-skinned. The possibility of a Middle-east
origin must therefore be considered.
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GALE. This could equally be derived from Old English or Norman French for happy
and joyous, or from a prison-keeper (as in gaol!). I suppose the jailer is
laughing because he’s on the outside!
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GASTEL. Possibly a cake-maker, from the old word giving the modern
French gateau.
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GATES,
GATIS. Either a dweller by the road (Old Norse gata) or a goatherd (Old English
gāt). The Venerable Bede, who should have known better, confused the two
similar words when he famously translated Gateshead (the head of the road) into
Latin as caput capriae (the head of
the goat), thus giving rise to all sorts of grisly legends!
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GAUBERT. A given name going back to Old French Gaubert
and Old German Waldbehrt. (In many old
names, “G” and “W” are interchangeable via the compound “GW”. So we
get English William, Welsh Gwillim
and French Guillaume!)
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GAUL. The stranger. The word is also spelled “gall” and as G and W are often
interchangeable is also related to WALSH and WELSH.
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GEDDIS. Could be the same as GEDDES, in which case it is either a nickname from
the Old English Gedde – Pike (the
fish, not the weapon!), or from a district of Geddes in Nairn, Scotland. Our
researcher’s GEDDIS family lived in County Down and came over to Durham during
the Irish famine sometime between 1846-1850. Lord Londonderry owned land
in County Down and the Easington, DUR area, which is believed to be why the
GEDDIS family came to live in County Durham.
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GEGGIE. A variant of
GEEKIE, and deriving from the place-name,
Gagie, in the parish
of Murroes, some 5 miles NE of Dundee. The Manor House of Gagie dates from 1614,
but variants of the surname go back to the 15th C.
Sir Archibald GEIKIE dominated the science of Geology in the late 19th
C. (ONS)
geekie@one-name.org
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GELDART. A herder of geldings. The surname crops up in Yorkshire records
from the 13th to the 16thC.
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GIBSOME. Probably a variant of GIBSON
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GIBSON, GIBBESON. Son of Gibb or Gibbon, both of which are diminutives of
GILBERT. The GIBBESON variant occurs in a christening in Kirk Merrington in
about 1746 and is also spelled GIBBISON in some records. There is a GIBBESON
Street in Lincoln.
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GILBERT. A given name of Old German
origin.
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GILES. An old name that probably came across with the Conqueror. St Giles (Latin
Aegidus) was a 7thC hermit
in Provence.
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GILHESPY. Probably a variant of Gillespie, “The Bishop’s Servant”
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GILL. A lot depends upon whether you pronounce the G hard or soft. In a North
Pennine context, it’s probably a hard G and can either come from a Scottish
servant (modern ghillie) or from a
dweller in a ravine or ghyll.
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A soft G would be a matronymic from Juliana or Gillian.
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GILLHOME. Probably a variant of Guillaume,
i.e. the French “William”.
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GIST. A Cornish name, of unknown (so far!) origin. Some GIST family members went
to America and are mentioned in early settlers’ history.
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GLANVILLE. A Norman name which appears in the Domesday Book, probably Robert de
GLANVILLE from Calvados.
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GLASPER. Most probably a variant
spelling of CLASPER, q.v.
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GLENDENNING,
GLENDINNING. Coming from
Glendinning in Dumfriesshire.
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GLENWRIGHT. A WRIGHT is a maker-of-things; usually synonymous with a carpenter
or joiner, and often qualified by speciality, e.g. WAINWRIGHT. The best theory
we have for GLENWRIGHT is the WRIGHT-family-from-the-Glen. Within the Clan
MCINTYRE (q.v.), there was a sept WRIGHT who settled in the Glen Noe area of
Scotland (Grid Ref: NN 067337).
These became the Glennoe Wrights, and onward to GLENWRIGHT. The name appears in
London as Glenneright, in 1589, and in 1598
in either Hexham or Haydon Bridge.
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GOMMERSAL, From Gomersal in Yorks
WR.(Landranger Sheet 104, SE 204262) The place name means Godmær’s halh,
or enclosed space. (ONS)
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GOODWILL. This is possibly a
variant of GOODALL – a brewer of good ale (that’s nice to know!) or the
Scots GOODWILLIE, originating in Fife.
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GORDISON.
Possibly the same as GORDONSON. There is a village of Gordon in Berwickshire and
the place and personal names may have grown up together from Norman immigrants.
The French place-name, Gourdon, occurs in Saone-et- Loire and elsewhere.
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GOUDIE, GOULDIE, GOULDING, GOULDY, GOWDY. Variants of GOLDIE (q.v.)
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GOUNDRY. a variant of GUNDREY, from Old French and Old German roots, meaning
“battle-ruler”.
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GOWLAND. A YWR place-name, near Moor Monkton (map?). John Gowland was a Freeman
of York in 1583.
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GRAHAM. A widespread Scottish name, from the Norman, William de Graham, c.1127.
The place-name Grantham in Lincolnshire is from the same root. They were
foremost amongst the Reiving families and many were banished to Ireland as a
result…. But inevitably found their way back! John GRAHAM, born around 1730 at
Stanwick St. John (just outside of Darlington), has descendants traceable to the
present day. (See Reivers)
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GRAINGE. GRAINGER. A dweller or worker at a barn or grange.
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GRANT. Usually derived from grand, in
the sense of tall, big or even senior and given originally as a nickname. There
is also an Old English place-name element, grante,
which may have been incorporated as a surname.
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GRAVE, GRAVESON. Probably a variant of GRIEVE (q.v.) Said to typically be a
Leeds name.
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GRAY, GREY. Either “the grey-haired one” or a Norman from Graye in Calvados.
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GRAYSON. Another variant of GRIEVE(SON)
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GREATHEAD. The name appears in London and Whitby, in the 14th and 15th
C., respectively. It seems to mean just that: someone with a remarkably large
head, in the real or perhaps colloquial sense. The name is believed to have a
single source somewhere in the north of England but this has not yet been
definitively proved. Most GREATHEADs were our usual mix of miners and farmers,
but the name has been associated with at least two great engineers:
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Henry Francis GREATHEAD (1757 - 1818) was commissioned by an altruistic
committee of four or five gentlemen who were businessmen, ship owners, and
master mariners that met regularly by the entrance to the Tyne at the Lawe
House, South Shields. In 1802, he
designed and built the Zetland, one of 31 lifeboats, which were the first ever
purpose-built lifeboats in Britain, if not the world.
This boat survives and can be found in Redcar RNLI museum.
His statue stands in South Shields.
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James Henry GREATHEAD III (1844 - 1896), inventor and engineer, was
born in South Africa, his grandfather (JHG I) having emigrated there in 1820. He
stands alongside Sir Joseph Bazalgette and Marc Brunel (Isambard’s Dad) as one
of London’s great tunnellers. He designed the Greathead Tunnelling Shield with
which he built a subway beneath the Thames in 1869 to help relieve the street
traffic. It employed a single, cable-drawn carriage but was not a commercial
success. However, the tunnel is still in place carrying, amongst other services,
hi-tech optical fibre cables. With more commercial success, he went on
to construct tunnels for the City and South London lines in 1886 and was
involved in all major 19thC. extensions to the Underground system.
He was consultant engineer for the Blackwall Tunnel.
Other inventions include the injected fire hydrant and the grouting
machine used to stop Winchester Cathedral collapsing.
He was elected to the Council of the Institute of Civil Engineers in
1884. His large statue stands near the Bank of England.
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(ONS) greathead@one-name.org.
( Mrs Jan Cooper) More information is to be found at: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/jan1coops/myhomepage/famtree.html
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GREEN.
Usually a dweller on the green.
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GREENSWORD. This name is also
spelt just as often in early registers as GREENSWARD which is green grass. We
therefore have a choice; both guesses, however. Either it came from someone
living on such a piece of land. OR possibly Green-sword as in someone new to
fighting
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GREGGS.
A shortened form of GREGORY. John GREGGEZ was a Freeman of York in 1504.
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GREGORY. An old name, from the Latin. More likely to be gregorius (watchful) than gregarius
(gregarious!).
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GRIEVE, GRIEVES. GRIEVESON. An old Northern word for overseer or bailiff – and
his son, too.
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GRIFFIN. Derived from the Welsh (or perhaps Breton) GRUFFUDD
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GRIME. Probably the same as GRIM, which may or may not be a nickname!
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GUEAST. Probably a variant of GUEST, in the sense of “stranger”.
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GUTHERIE, GUTHRIE. From the
Barony in Angus, Scotland. There were said to be four branches of the family:
“Guthrie o’ Guthrie / an’ Guthrie o’ Gaigie. / Guthrie o’ Taybank /
an’ Guthrie o’ Craigie. ” The name is recorded back to the 13thC.
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GUY.
Norman name, derived from the word for “guide”. The name also crops up as
WYE and GUIDO.
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