This uncommon and interesting name is of medieval Irish origin, and is one of the Anglicized forms of the Irish surname "Mac an Galloglaigh", also found as Mac Galloghy and Gallogly. The name derives from the Gaelic patronymic prefix "Mac", with "galloglach", from "gall", foreigner, and "oglach", young warrior-servant, from "og", young, and "-lach", a noun suffix. The name is usually translated as "son of the alloglass". These were heavily armed mercenary soldiers, originally Hebridean and thus Gaelic-Norse, who were brought into Ireland and maintained by some Irish chiefs from about 1235 to the 16th Century. In the tragedy "Macbeth", Shakespeare speaks of "the merciless Macdonwald....from the Western Isles of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied". The Irish sept of the name were originally of Co. Donegal, but are now more numerous in Tyrone and other Ulster counties. The birth of James, son of Myles Galloglay or Gillogly (both names are recorded) and Anna McDermott, was recorded at Rotten Mountain, Co. Fermanagh, on June 24th 1813. The form Gil(l)ogl(e)y, apparently adopted by those Gallogleys who settled in Scotland after the 18th Century, is recorded most frequently in that country: Ellen, daughter of Hugh and Elisabeth Gillogley, was baptised on April 13th 1864 in Clyde, Glasgow, Lanarkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of MacGillogly, which was dated 1458, in "Early Records of the Parish of Balmartin", County Meath, during the reign of King Henry V1, known as "The Founder of Eton", 1422 - 1485. 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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