GETHING
Gething is a British surname with confirmed Welsh origins. It is recorded in Wales from ancient times and remains predominantly found in the Welsh regions today.
According to the available sources, the surname is linked to the medieval Welsh name Gethin, which in the Welsh language means dark‑skinned or swarthy. The derivation as a descriptive surname is therefore straightforward: it was most likely originally applied to a person with a dark complexion or dark hair. The name is still used in contemporary Wales, often in combination with other Welsh surnames that share a similar morphological structure.
Documentation of the name dates back to the early 14th century. The earliest known spelling, credited to Iorwerth Gethyn, appears in an entry dated 1325 in the “Early Medieval Records of Wales” and is associated with the reign of Edward the First, King of England, who reigned from 1307 to 1327. This evidence places the surname firmly within the medieval Welsh naming tradition.
Later records show the surname appearing in a variety of spellings, including Gething, Gethin, Gitting, and Gethen. This variety reflects the lack of orthographic standardisation in medieval and early modern Wales, where scribes used phonetically based spellings that often changed with regional pronunciation. The name also appears in English parish registers. For example, on 6 July 1631, a John Gething was married to Isabell Henlye at St. Margaret’s in Westminster; a related record shows that Rebecca, daughter of Philip and Anne Gething, was christened at St. Dunstan’s, Stepney, on 20 February 1646. These entries demonstrate the migration of bearers of the name into London in the seventeenth century.
There are two distinct routes to the surname according to scholarly analysis of early Welsh onomastics. The first route derives from the Old Welsh hypocoristic forms Gutyn or Gutun, themselves shortened from the ancient Welsh male given name Grippiud. Over time Grippiud evolved into Griffudd, Gruffudd and finally Gruffydd, the name of a number of Welsh monarchs, such as Gruffudd ap Cynan (1055‑1137), King of Gwynedd, and Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (–1100), King of Wales. The suffix udd carries connotations of chief or lord, and the pairing of cryf or griff (meaning strong or grip) with udd formed a name imbuing the bearer with ambition and strength. The surname form of Gutyn is therefore best understood as a patronymic that eventually lost its explicit patronymic marker in a period of evolving naming habits.
The second route is a more direct transformation of the Old Welsh personal byname Cethin or Gethyn, derived from cethin meaning “dusky” or “swarthy.” The byname was likely initially descriptive, possibly applied to someone with a black or dark hair colour. A contemporary example of this source is the figure Cethin ap Gruffudd mentioned in the 1406 Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts. The byname then became hereditary and diverged into the modern surname (Gething, Gethin, etc.).
Both sources illustrate the broader pattern of early Welsh surnames, which were frequently based on either descriptive nicknames or patronymics. In the Welsh tradition, surnames developed out of common linguistic elements rather than from Latin or Norman influences that were more typical in England. As a result, modern bearers of the surname carry a linguistic heritage that links them to the early medieval Welsh linguistic landscape.
While the surname is chiefly associated with Wales, it is found in the United Kingdom and abroad, especially in countries with Welsh diaspora. Modern genealogical research shows that individuals with the surname often trace their ancestry back to Welsh counties such as Gwynedd, Anglesey and Carmarthenshire. In contemporary usage, the surname is still an indicator of Welsh identity and heritage, reflecting a lineage that extends over nine centuries.
Typical given names associated with the Gething surname
Male
- Andrew
- David
- Edward
- Ian
- James
- John
- Kevin
- Michael
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Ronald
- Steven
Female
- Amanda
- Dorothy
- Elizabeth
- Helen
- Louise
- Margaret
- Melanie
- Natasha
- Nicola
- Sarah
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Gething in...
Braille
⠛⠑⠞⠓⠊⠝⠛
Morse
--..-......-.--.
Semaphore
There are approximately 761 people named Gething in the UK. That makes it roughly the 9,109th most common surname in Britain. Around 12 in a million people in Britain are named Gething.
Famous people named Gething
- Vaughan Gething - Welsh politician and AM
- Glyn Gething - Welsh rugby union player (1892 to 1977)
Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.