Find out how popular the last name Gall is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Gall.

Gall, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Gall surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Gall in America

Gall is the 3681st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Gall surname appeared 9,658 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 3 people would have the surname Gall.

We can also compare 2010 data for Gall to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Gall

The surname Gall originated in England and Scotland. It is derived from the Old English word "galla" meaning "bitter" or "pungent taste". This referred to the taste of the plant known as the gall or oak apple, which was used for dyeing and ink-making in medieval times.

The name Gall first appeared in records in the 12th century. It was found in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire in 1191 as Galle. Other early spellings included Gal, Galle, and Gall.

One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was William Gall, who was mentioned in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379. The Gall family had landholdings in Ayrshire, Scotland, dating back to at least the 15th century.

The name Gall is also found in connection with several place names in Scotland and northern England, such as Galloway in southwestern Scotland, which likely derives from the Brittonic word "gall" meaning "stranger" or "foreigner".

Notable people with the surname Gall throughout history include Richard Gall (c. 1350-1417), a Scottish clergyman who served as Bishop of Glasgow; Franz Gall (1758-1828), a German neuroanatomist and founder of phrenology; Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), an Austrian novelist and dramatist; and René Gall (1919-1992), a French boxer who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics.

The Gall surname has also been associated with the Gall-Peters projection, a cartographic projection conceived by Arno Peters (1916-2002), a German historian and cartographer. This map projection aimed to represent the relative sizes of countries and continents more accurately than traditional projections like the Mercator projection.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Gall

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Gall.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Gall was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Gall has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Gall was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Gall, please contact us.

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