This interesting name is one of the many variant spellings of the original surname 'Galhard', which itself derives from either of two possible sources. Firstly, it may come from the pre 5th century a.d. Old German and Anglo-Saxon compound personal name "Gailhard" with the elements 'gail' meaning joyful and 'hard', strong and brave or secondly it may be from the later Norman- French "Gaillart", the meaning being the same. The surname appears in Spain as 'Gallardo' and in Italy as 'Gagliardi' as well as other spellings, but all have the same roots. It is recorded as "Gaylordus" in the English Patent Rolls of 1206, and later in 1295 as Geylard. Other recordings include Alexander Galyard in the Register of the Freemen of York in 1426, whilst in the New World of the Americas, Joseph Segovia Gallardo is recorded at Asuncion, Districto Federal, Mexico, on November 26th 1662, and in California John Wesley Gallardo, was born at Alameda on March 27th 1884. The coat of arms has the very distinctive blazon of a black field charhged with a silver fleur de lis. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Gaylord, which was dated 1125, in the charters of England known as the "Close Rolls", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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