Gomery is a rare

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

found mainly in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. In some cases Gomery has arisen by a process of aphaeresis, where the ''Mont-'' has gradually been lost from the surname Montgomery, a place name in Normandy. This place name is already associated with the first name Gomery and means "Gomery's hill". Gomery was the name of the owner, originally ''Gumaric'', Germanic personal name, that is a compound of two elements: ''guma'' "man" (

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''guma''; ''brȳdeguma'' > bridegroom; German: ''Bräutigam'') and ''ric'' "power" (Old English ''rīc'' in "bishopric"). This Germanic name still survives today in the German first name Gumarich. In England in the 18th century, it was concentrated in the county of

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

and had frequent variants as Gumery or Gummery. By the time of the 1881

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of England and Wales it was still concentrated in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

region, but had spread to other industrial centres in the country. In the 1881 census of England and Wales there were 75 people recorded with the surname Gomery. In 2002 there were 152 persons with the surname Gomery in England and Wales, making it the 25,427th most common surname.

As a placename

* Gomery, village in southern

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, in the municipality of

Virton Virton (; Gaumais: ''Viertån''; wa, Vierton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. It is also the administrative centre of the district (''arrondissement'') of the same name, as well as the princ ...

province of Luxembourg Luxembourg (french: Luxembourg ; nl, Luxemburg ; german: Luxemburg ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; wa, Lussimbork), also called Belgian Luxembourg, is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on the country of Luxembourg to the ea ...

and Gaume region, seat of the de Gerlache de Gomery family.

Notable people with the surname Gomery

* Adrien Victor Joseph Baron de Gerlache de Gomery (1866–1934), Belgian naval officer who led the first

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

expedition to concentrate on scientific observation from 1897 to 1899. Sailing with him as mate on the "

Belgica Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and German ...

" was

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

, who on a subsequent expedition of his own was the first to reach the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

. The "Belgica" was trapped in the pack ice of the Antarctic for 13 months and became the first vessel to winter in the Antarctic. Adrien Baron de Gerlache de Gomery assisted the English explorer Sir

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...

in planning his Antarctic crossing of 1914 to 1917. * John H. Gomery, Canadian High Court judge in charge of the

Gomery Commission The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006. ...

. * Percy Gomery (1881–1960), author and novelist. Wrote "A Motor Scamper 'Cross Canada" in 1922, and "Hot and Cold Laid On: Burrowing in Britain" in 1946. * Robert Gomery (c. 1778 – 1853), actor and singer in early 19th-century

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the natural father of Robert Montgomery (1807-1855).{{cite web , url=http://gomery.one-name.net/robgom.html , title=Robert GOMERY, Actor Gomery may also refer to: *The

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Sponsorship scandal and the investigation by the

References

External links

* http://gomery.one-name.net/ Contains Gomery genealogy, family history and one-name study. Gomery