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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • French : nickname for a cheerful or high-spirited person, from galant, the present participle of Old French galer ‘to be in good humor’, ‘enjoy oneself’, a word of Germanic origin (see Gale 1 and Gaillard). The meanings ‘gallant’ and ‘attentive to women’ are later developments, which may lie behind some examples of the surname.

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