Well-known though it is, the name 'Samwise Gamgee' would not have been recognised by the character who bore it. It is an anglicised version of Sam's original name, created by Tolkien using Old English equivalents to the elements of that name, which would actually have been Banazîr Galpsi, or 'Ban' for short.
The name 'Galpsi' was a contraction of an older form, 'Galbasi', referring to Hobbits who were resident in the village of Galabas. The anglicised version of the name follows a similar logic: 'Gamgee' is a contraction of 'Gammidgy', which relates to the village of Gamwich, where Sam's family originated.
Notes
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We only have a detailed description of the name's evolution in its anglicised terms, so here we necessarily assume that the historical development of Galabas > Galbasi > Galpsi mirrored the evolution of Gamwich > Gammidgy > Gamgee from the genealogical records.
Note that we use the anglicised forenames here for members of the family, because only a small number of their 'actual' names were known. We can be relatively confident that Hamfast of Gamwich would have originally been named 'Ranugad of Galabas', but for Hobson or Roper Gamgee we have no hints as to what his 'true' names might have been.
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- Updated 17 September 2022
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