Recorded in a wide range of spellings, some of which are quite extraordinary, and seem to have little in common with each other. These include: Gatty, Getttie, Getty, Goady, Gowdy, Guddiah, Gudarah, and Gudahy, and however spelt, this is in origin a Northern Irish surname, but of Scottish origins. It derives from the pre 10th century Gaelic personal name Mag Eitigh, which in Scotland is the famous surname Dalgetty, the family of Dalgetty or Dalgety originating from areas known as the lands of Dalgety or Dalgaty in either Fife or Aberdeen. It seems that various members of the Dalgetty family were given land in Ireland in about 1640, where they were henceforth generally known as Getty. The other variant spellings developed through the interaction of the original Gaelic language and local dialects of both the Scots and the native Irish, with the presentation in registers and records of what was regarded as the English spelling forms. The first known recording of the name in any spelling is believed to be that of Hercules Delgaty of the parish of Brechin, Scotland, in 1594, although the records of Ireland are less forthcoming, many being destroyed in the blowing up by the IRA of the Dublin Public Records Office in 1922. However we do have the recordings of James Gettie of Antrim, in 1685, and Anne Guddiah, the daughter of Henry Guddiah of Dublin, when she was christened there in 1702. Mary Gudarah was a famine emigrant when she left for New York on the ship Rappanock of Liverpool in 1846, and John Goady, a native of Rathmore, Kerry, in 1868. John Paul Getty (1892 - 1976), was probably the richest man in the world, owning over 100 oil companies.

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