Gibbs

Variations- Gibbons, Gibson, Gilbert, Gilbrecht
Racial Origin – English and German
Source – A given name

The family name of Gibbs and Gibbons don’t show their origin in the form , or rather, that origin is not so obvious to us today, simply because they are patronymic developments of a type of nickname which is rather rare in modern times, though quite common in that period of medieval history in which family names came into being.

We would not, for instance, think of shortening the name Gilbert into “Gib” or “Gibb.” Though we might make it either “Gill,” or “Bert.” But the twist of the medieval English tongue, under the influence of Norman-French, was different.  It tended particularly to eliminate the letter “I.” Hence as Walter was shortened to “Wat,” and gave us “Wat-son,” so Gilbert was shortened to “Gib” and gave us “Gib-son” and then “Gibbs,” just as “Diceon” or “Dickon,” meant “little Dick,” and by the addison of “son,” gave us “Dickinson” and “Dickens,” so “Gibbon” has developed into “Gibbons.”

Gilbert, as a family name, is but a reshortening of “Gilbertson” into “Gilberts” and then Gilbert.  Gilbrecht, of course, is a German form.

As the given name Gilbert means either “gold-bright” or “yellow-bright.”  The “gil” is from the same source as our “gilt,” “gild” and “gold,” and the German “gelt.” The “bert,” which appears as “brecht” in German, is a mark of Tentonic names. It means “bright,” and comes, in fact, from the same source as that word.  The Anglo-Saxon form was “beort” or “beohrt,” the latter being the older form, with the “h” as strongly guttural as the German “ch” of today.  The “gh” in “bright” was originally pronounced in this same fashion.