439 GALWAY members around the world

GALWAY Family History

This name is of Scottish regional origin from the district called Galloway in South West Scotland. The name derives from the Gaelic "gall" meaning a stranger or foreigner, plus "Gaidhel" a Gales. The inhabitants of the area were thus referred to because of their alliances with the Norsemen rather than with their fellow Gaels from the 9th Century onwards. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 13th Century, (see below). One, Jhone of Galloway was a tenant in Kethik in 1495. The variant spellings Galaway and Galway appears in London Church Registers from the mid 16th Century.