Patronymica Cornu-Britannica/G

by Richard Stephen Charnock

 

G.

 

GALGEY. This name may be from Galgeath in Cardinham; from gol-kea, the holy enclosure, or cala-kea, the hard enclosure.

GARE. See Gear.

GARRANCE. From guarhaz, garhaz, the summit or top. There is Garras in Kenwyn, and Garras in St. Allen, which Pryce renders, "on the top of the hill."

GARTARELL, GARTRELL. From car-Terrell, Terrell's rock.

GAUERIGAN, GAUERYGAN, GAVERGAN, GAVERIGON, GAVRIGAN, GAWRIGAN. Gaverigon is said to mean "twenty goats" (igans, twenty). It is the same as Gauerigan, from gavar-y-gan, "the goats' downs." Gauerygan, Gavergan, Gavrigan, Gawrigan, and Govrigon are different forms of the same name. The arms of Gavergan are a goat.

GAYER. The same as Gear, q. v. Lower thinks Gayer the Gare of the Wiltshire Domesday.

GEACH, GEAKE. See Quick.

GEAR. There is an estate named Gear in the parish of St. Earth, which Polwhele thinks may have had its name from caer, castrum; and he says Gear Bridge below was originally Caer Bridge. Geare in Cornish signifies "green or flourishing." There are places called Tregear and Tregeare; and Tregare is mentioned by Hals under Gerans. Hence the names Gayer, Geer, Geere, and Gare.

GEDDEY, GEDY. See Giddy.

GEDGE. See Quick.

GEER, GEERE. See Gear.

GERNIGAN. From carn-igans, twenty rocks. The name would also translate the little rock. There is a place called Gurnick in Crowan.

GERRANS. From a parish of the same name in Cornwall. From root of Garrance, q. v.

GERRESH. From some local name. Tonkin says, "adjoining to the barton of Gwerick in St. Allen is a tenement called the Gerras, that is, the summit or top, from its high situation, which I notice in this place on account of its lead mines." From root of Garrance or Gerrans, q. v.

GEVERS. Qu. from gavar, a goat.

GEW. Pryce renders gew, the stay, support; and says, on many estates (especially in the west) one of the best fields is called the Gew, probably from its being the support of the estate. There is a place called Gew in Crowan.

GIDDY, GIDEY. Giddy is an ancient Cornish family, formerly written Gedy, Geddey, Gidey, &c. "Possibly a nurse name of Gideon." (Lower.)

GILLY. From gilly, gelly, kelli, a grove. There is a place called Gilly in Mawgan, in Meneage.

GIST. From gest, gyst, a dog, properly a bitch. Hence the name Keast. Cf. the Irish names compounded of cu, con, a dog, used with sense of hero.

GLASS. From glaze, glase, green. Glas is the Cornish for a country.

GLASSON, GLAZON. From glaz-on, glaz-ûn, the green downs.

GLAZE. From glaze, glase, green. Carglaze (the green rock) is the name of a tin mine in St. Austell. Cf. Polglase.

GLAZON. See Glasson.

GLENCROSS. From glen-crous, the cross in the dale.

GLISSAN. From glâs-an, the green (place). See Treglissan.

GLUAS, GLUGAS, GLUYAS. From glew-glas, the moist or wet country; or from the parish of Gluvias in Kerrier hundred, named after the saint to whom the church was dedicated. Hals absurdly derives the parochial name from glewas, to hear.

GLYN, GLYNN. From Glin, Glynn, in the parish of Cardinham, where the family flourished for many generations; from glyn, a woody valley.

GOAD, GOATE. See Coode.

GODALCAN, GODOLCAN, GODOLGHAN, GODOLPHIN. Carew derives Godolphin from two Cornish words signifying "white eagle." Scawen says, "Godolphin in keeping still displayed abroad the white eagle, from the Cornish gothlugon." A correspondent of Notes and Queries observes, "It seems highly improbable that Carew should have given the explanation 'white eagle' without some grounds of apparent probability. First, the Cornish form of the name is Godolghan, Godolcan, or Godalcan: the last syllable may be can, white; godol or gedol may have been a Welsh or Cornish word unknown to the dictionaries signifying 'eagle' (probably as a descriptive epithet, etymologically combatant), even though we have no other voucher than Carew himself. That such a word, whatever the meaning, existed in Welsh, we may learn from the name of Cors-y-Gedol in Merioneth. Gilbert seems to have imagined English elements in this Cornish name. But, although it is possible Carew may be right in his division and interpretation of the name, there is another explanation to be found, I believe, in Camden. Godalcan is rendered 'wood of tin', as though it were a wood in which there are tin mines (god, imitation of coit, a wood; alcan, tin); but while I believe that alcan is an element in the name, the first syllable seems to me to be from cody, to raise—a place where tin is raised. I believe Carew to be quite right as to what the several parts of the Cornish name might mean, though wrong in so dividing the word and applying them to this particular example; while Gilbert is quite astray." Gilbert says in a note, "Godolanec in the Phœnician is a place of tin." The editor of Notes and Queries observes, "The editors of the Queens of Society had probably read the following note in Burke's, p. 223:—'Godolphin, in Cornish, signifies a white eagle, which was always borne in the arms of this family.' Burke, no doubt, obtained this fanciful meaning of the word from Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p. 149, ed. 1811, where it is stated that Godolfin alias Godolghan signifies the white eagle—that which (says D. Gilbert) nothing can be more untrue, for in all these compound there is not one particle or syllable relating thereto, or any other of the British language whatsoever; for wen erew, wen eryr, wen eriew, and by contraction wen-er, is a white eagle in the Welsh, Little-Britannic, and Cornish tongues. (See Dr. Davis's British Lexicon, and Floyd upon Aquila.) As for the modern name Good-ol-phin, God-ol-fyn, it admits of no other etymology or construction than that it was a place that was altogether a wood, fountain, well, or spring of water, or altogether God's fountain or spring of water. Parochial Hist. of Cornwall, i. 119, 120." N. & Q., 3rd S. iii. 448. Lower (on the authority of C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 520) says, "Godolphin, a manor in the parish of Breage, near Helston, anciently written Godolghan, a word which is said to signify in the Cornish 'the white eagle,' whence the 'eagle displayed with two necks argent,' in the armorial shield. John de Godolphin is said to have possessed the manor at the time of the Conquest." Pryce translates Godolphin "the little valley of springs" (go, little; dol, valley; phin or fince, of springs). This would seem to be a more reasonable etymology, but I am inclined to think godôl may be simply an intense form of dôl, and that the name was perhaps originally Dôlvean, the little valley; or Dôlfyn, the spring in the valley. Godolcan may indeed be another name altogether. I find in Leland's Itinerary (D. Gilbert, iv. 267), "From Mr. Godolcan to Pembro, wher the parish chirch is (i. e. appertains) to Mr. Godolcan......From Mr. Godolcan to Lanante a four miles. No greater tynne workes yn al Cornwall then be on Sir Wylliam Godalcan's ground." The surnames Dolphin, Dalphin, may be etymologically connected with that of Godolphin.

GOGAY. From go-guy, the little stream; go-chy, the ittle house; or go-kea, the little enclosure.

GOMMO. See Gumb.

GOOD, GOOSE, GOOSEY, GOOZE, GOOZEE. See Coode.

GOSS, GOSSE. As Cornish names, from root of Coode, q. v.

GOVE. From gof, gove, a smith of any kind.

GOVERIGON. See Gauerigan.

GOVER. From gover (go-ver), the brook or spring of water; (W. gofer, a rivulet); hence perhaps Cover.

GOYNE, GOYNS, GOYNES. From root of Gunn, q. v. There is Goynglaze in St. Agnes.

GREW. From grew, a crane. Cf. Killigrew, Pettigrew.

GRILLS, GRYLLS. A friend renders this surname a grasshopper or cricket (grillus, gryllus, a cricket; in later times perhaps used to designate a locust). But the name is rather from the manor of Grylls or Garles, in Lesneweth, near the rocks called the Grylls or Garles. Hence the surname Gryllo.

GROWDEN, GROWDON. From grou-den, the hill of sand or gravel; or crou-den, the hill of the cross.

GRUNDRY. See Gundry.

GRYLLO. See Grills.

GUAVAS, GUAVIS. See Gwavis.

GUMB, GUM, GUMMOE, GUMMOW. Gumb is from guimp, gump, down hill (in W. ar guympo). There is a place called Gump in St. Agnes; and the village of Jump in Roborough hundred, co. Devon. Cf. the names Kumpe, Gommo.

GUNDRY, GRUNDRY. From gûn-dre, the town on the down or plain; or gûn-draith, the down by the seashore. There is in Mawgan in Meneage a place called Gwandray. These names may however be the same as Gundred (whence St. Gundred's Well in Roche), a German name; from gund-draut, faithful and beloved woman.

GUNN. As a Cornish name, from gûn, goon, a down or common, a plain.

GWAIRNICK, GWARNACK. Hals says, "Gwarn-ike (in St. Allen), i. e. lake, river, or leate, summons, notice, or warning, so called from Gwarnike Castle, a treble intrenchment or fortification lately extant on the woody lands thereof, is the voke lands of the manor and barton of Gwarnike, the old inheritance and dwellinge of the once rich and famous family of the Bevils for many generations"! Tonkin: "Partly in this parish is the great lordship of Gwairnick, id est, the Hay river; a name not unsuitable to the circumstances of the place, for a pleasant river passeth through most fertile meadows beneath the house." Leland writes the local name Gwernak. Pryce renders guernick "marshy, moorish, hence Guarnick or Gwarnick in St. Allen, &c." There is a place called Gwnarick in Kenwyn, and Gurnick in Crowan.

GUAVAS, GUAVIS, GWAVAS, GWAVIS. From Guavas or Gwavas in Sithney. The name means a winterly place, from guâv, gwaf, winter. Hence the names Wavis, Wavish.

GWENAP. From the parish of Gwennap or Gwenap, which was dedicated to St. Wenep. Pryce renders Gwenap white son or white face (gwen-ap).

GWERICK. From guêr-ick, which will translate both the green or flourishing place and the green brook.

GWIATOR, GWIHTOR. Henry Gwihtor or Gwiator occurs in a muster-book for Redruth in 1500. The name is from guythor, an artificer, workman; gueidhur, a workman; gueidwur, a workman in silver; also a brazier, tinker. Hence perhaps the surnames Gwyther, Wadder, Wetter, Whetter.

GWIN, GWINN, GWYN, GWYNN, GWYNNE, WHIDDEN, WIDDEN. From gwyn, gwydn, widn, white. See also Winn.

GWYTHER. See Gwiator.