Galabas was the actual original name used for a village of the Shire. It was said to mean roughly 'game-village', and, like most Hobbit-names, it has been anglicised by Tolkien, in this case to 'Gamwich'. Better known than the village was a family that originated here: known to the Shire-hobbits as Galbasi (which later evolved into Galpsi). The anglicised versions of these names are rather more familiar: Galbasi became 'Gammidgy', and the contracted form Galpsi is the origin of Sam's name 'Gamgee'.
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The evolution of the surname Gamgee is fully explained in its anglicised form as deriving from the village of Gamwich thusly: Gamwich > Gammidge > Gammidgy > Gamgee. We do not, however, have exact correspondences for all these forms in the original Hobbit-speech, but merely the village name Galabas and the derivatives Galbasi and Galpsi (which equated to Gamgee). It is thus unclear exactly which precursor to Gamgee is represented by Galbasi; in principle, it might be either Gammidge or Gammidgy, or a combination of the two. Conceivably, there may have been an intervening form Galabasi (for 'of Gamwich' or Gammidge) and, if so, we might take it that the modified Galbasi corresponded to Gammidgy in the sequence of names.
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