The gale Surname
gale Name Meaning and History
- English: nickname for a cheerful or boisterous person, from Middle English ga(i)le ‘jovial’, ‘rowdy’, from Old English gal ‘light’, ‘pleasant’, ‘merry’, which was reinforced in Middle English by Old French gail. Compare Gail 2.
- English: from a Germanic personal name introduced into England from France by the Normans in the form Gal(on). Two originally distinct names have fallen together in this form: one was a short form of compound names with the first element gail ‘cheerful’, ‘joyous’. Compare Gaillard, the other was a byname from the element walh ‘stranger’, ‘foreigner’.
- English: metonymic occupational name for a jailer, topographic name for someone who lived near the local jail, or nickname for a jailbird, from Old Northern French gaiole ‘jail’ (Late Latin caveola, a diminutive of classical Latin cavea ‘cage’).
- Portuguese: from galé ‘galleon’, ‘war ship’, presumably a metonymic occupational name for a shipwright or a mariner.
- Slovenian: from a pet form of the personal name Gal (Latin Gallus), formed with the suffix -e, usually denoting a young person.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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