This rare and interesting name is a good example of the intriguing surname variants that can be created when names of one nationality are adopted into another, with subsequent phonetic spelling, clerical errors, and changes due to "folk etymology", the popular perversion of the element of the name in order to give it a meaning. In this instance, the modern surnames found in England as Gallehawk, Gallihawk, Gallihau(l)k, Gallehock and Gollyhaock, are all "Anglicized" versions of the Italian names Gallico and Gallichio, or any of their variants. This was originally a regional name in North West Spain, so called from the Latin "Gallaecia", a derivative of the tribal name "Gallaeci" of unknown origin; the Spanish forms of the name are Gallego and Gallegos. Among recordings of the name in England are those of the marriages of Prudence Gallihawke and Richard Read, in Milton next Sittingbourne, in Kent, on December 1st 1783, and of Charles Gallehawk and Eliza Youens at St. Paul's Deptford, on November 17th 1873. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gaetano Gallichio (baptism), which was dated April 13th 1637, in Calvera, Potenza, Italy, during the reign of Ferdinand 11, known as " The Holy Roman Emperor", 1619 - 1637. 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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