Family name origins & meanings
- English (chiefly Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire) : habitational name from Gowdall in East Yorkshire, named from Old English golde ‘marigold’ + Old English halh ‘nook’, ‘recess’.
- English (chiefly Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire) : from Middle English gode ‘good’ + ale ‘ale’, ‘malt liquor’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a brewer or an innkeeper.