Family name origins & meanings
- Italian : from the medieval Greek personal name Galatēs, originally meaning ‘person from Galatia or Gaul’. Galatia was an ancient territory of central Asia Minor, so called from its inhabitants, Celtic speakers who invaded from the west in the 3rd century bc. Gaul (Latin Gallia) consisted originally of the Celtic-speaking territories of what is now France; the Latin term was extended to include northern Italy after the Celtic invasions of the 4th and 3rd centuries bc.