OF FAMILY NAME.
[ From Burke's Landed Gentry. ]
"The name is said to be derived from the German words, 'Gott and
Lobe,' God and praise, as Godfrey comes, from Gott and Frende, God and peace."
[From Hon. C. H. Gallup's History of Norwalk, Ohio.]
In
Lorraine, part of the debatable territory between the French and German people; wasted and
seared and scarred by many battles, now in possession of one people, then of another,
there is an ancient family of the name of Kolopp.
From time immemorial
the tradition has been handed down, by its members from generation to generation, that one
of their number went to Western Europe as a follower of William Duke of Normandy, and
never returned. This tradition was recently imparted to the writer by the Rev. Peter
Kolopp, a member of that family now in charge of St. Peter's (Catholic) church of Norwalk.
As corroborative of the
tradition in the Kolopp family of Lorraine, a tradition also exists in the Gallup family
of America that the founder of the English branch came into England at the Conquest, from
France. This tradition has often been related to the writer by the late Hallet Gallup of
Norwalk.
The different spelling
of the names, by the two families is no indication Of a difference in origin. In those
early days education was confined to the monasteries, and family names were perpetuated by
the medium of their children, more than by written records.
Afterwards, as
education became more general, and men learned to write their names, the manner of
spelling them was purely arbitrary, depending upon the sound, or the fancy of the
individual. Kolopp is a correct phonetic spelling of the German pronunciation of
Gallup."
In old English records,
the name is spelled in several different ways, as Gollop, Gollopp, Golloppe, Golop. The
present English family still retain Gollop.
In Boston records, we
find almost as great a variety of spelling as given in the ancient English records. Gallup
preponderating however, and the latter form of spelling but slightly changed by later
generations from our great ancestor's simple orthography, seems, by common consent to have
been adopted by the large majority of his descendants in our country.
