A female name. Old German Geredrudis, Geretrudis, compound of gairu ‘spear’ and drudi ‘strength’, the name of one of the Valkyrie. There were two saints of this name, St Gertrude, Abbess of Nivelles (d. 659), and St Gertrude, surnamed the Great (1236-1311), a German mystic. The first of these was very popular in Brabant, and it was no doubt from the Low Countries that the name was introduced into England. It is found occasionally in the Middle Ages, and the surnames Gatt, Gatte, Gattie may be derived from Gatty, formerly the pet-form of the name. In the 16th and 17th C the name was fairly common and it is found spelt variously Gartrude, Gartrite, Gethrude, Garthrite. Lyford 1655 gives it as Gertrud. The will of Albinia, Lady Wray 1660, mentions ‘my gentlewoman Gartrett South’. In the later 19th C Gertrude became a favourite name and was often abbreviated to Gertie.

The first element is that in Gerald: the Teutonic ger or gar, ‘a spear’; the second, a Teutonic word for ‘maid(en)’. The first Gertrude appears to have been a Valkyr named Geirthrud or Gerdrud; ‘for, alas! the pretty interpretation that has caused so many damsels of late to bear it, as meaning all truth’—wrongly based on modern German gar, ‘quite,’ and a pleasant ignorance of the etymology of truth—‘is utterly untenable, unless they will regard themselves as allegorically constant battle-maids, armed with the spear of Ithuriel,’ as Charlotte Yonge, amicably disdainful of such folk-etymology as rides rough-shod over well-proved origins. And such prettiness is unnecessary if one remembers that there are three Saints Gertrude; two in C7 and one in late C13-early 14. The very English transformation, Gatty, is unfortunately disappearing.

From the Old German name Gertrude; from ger-draut, which will translate either ‘very faithful’ or ‘very dear or beloved.’

Teutonic (feminine) - Maiden trusted and true.

A Teutonic name, meaning: Spear maid: armed for battle.