Bertha Gall

Female1898–1966 •25YT-CQH

Scottish, Welsh, and Irish: nickname from Celtic gall ‘foreigner, stranger’, a word found in Irish, Gaelic, and Breton. In the Scottish Highlands the Gaelic term gall was applied to people from the English-speaking lowlands and to Scandinavians; in Ireland the same term was applied to settlers who arrived from Wales and England in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th century. This surname is also found at an early date in Lincolnshire, where it apparently has a Breton origin (compare 4 below and Legall ), having been introduced by Breton followers of the Norman Conquerors.

English (of Norman origin): variant of Gale .

French, German, Danish, Polish, and Czech; Slovak (mainly Gáll); Hungarian (Gáll): from the Latin personal name Gallus, originally a Roman surname meaning ‘Gaul’ or ‘rooster’ (see Gallo 2). The name was widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages, in central Europe largelly due to the cult of a 7th-century Irish monk and missionary, Saint Gall, whose name, Latinized as Gallus, is presumably of Celtic origin (see 1 above). Among other things, Saint Gall established a Christian settlement to the south of Lake Constance, which became the monastery later known as St. Gallen. The Latin(ized) name Gallus was taken into Czech as Havel , into Polish as Gaweł (see Gawel ), into Slovak and Hungarian as Gál (see Gal ), and into Slovenian and Croatian as Gal .