Is there any Gagen's out there who pronounce the name as Gaygun. .
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Audrey - that quoted pronunciation is the one used by Gagens of Irish or German descent, and quite different from that of the English branch. John Gagen Brisbane Australia
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John how do you phonetically pronounce your spelling of Gagen. . We do have a family tree and our Gagen ancestors are from England. The Gagen spelling with the en is unusual here in Ontario Canada most common spelling is Gagan and it is a rare occassion when I hear our name pronounced correctly.
Audrey Gagen
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Audrey-
The Irish/German way appears to be phonetically pronounced as gay-gen as compared to the English gage-en or gaje-en. There are very few of the english line in Australia, mostly german or, to a lesser degree, irish.
Cheers- John
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Audrey - I forgot to mention that the Gagan spelling is definitely irish - and that Gagen is usually either a corruption of the irish Geoghegan (and all its variants), or from the german (originally dutch) Gagen or Gegan - the english Gagens went over there with William of Orange in the 1600s
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John , the spelling of the name Geoghegan is in a family bible. It is mentioned that the name was shortened to make it easier to spell. There are no dates , when / who changed the spelling. You have done your homework. By the way Gagen is my husbands name.
Audrey
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There are quite a few Gagens who are now pronounced gay-gun but were originally gay-jun. In the armed forces one`s name was often called wrongly and some of us found it better to go along with the mispronunciation. My great grandfather was John and my grandfather was Thomas ( married Isabella Reynolds). My father was Fred, youngest son of those two and I am the only survivor of Fred`s marriage to Frances Oakley. We hail from Terrington St. Clement in Norfplk.
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Hi Audrey My Mother was Helena Winifred-Rose Gagen born 1905. The correct pronouncement is GAY-GEN Tom Blakesley
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trying to trace family tree. been advised that some relations went from norfolk england to australia. where do you fit into the jigsaw?
would love to hear from you
regards stuart gagen
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Hello Stuart- Your branch of the Gagens came over to UK with William of Orange and have been part of the Norfolk scence for 400 years. My branch of the Gagen clan came from Germany which we can trace back to about the same era - so we are probably related from those days. The Norfolk Gagens still have a smattering of relatives out here - mainly in New South Wales. The majority of Gagens in Australia come from the German line. The German clan dispersed in the 1850s with one brother going to Russia, another to north America and my g/g/father to Australia. Quite a strong Gagen connection now exists in Russia (St Petersburg and Moscow. The north american/german connection is mainly centered on Canada Hope that helps a little bit in unravelling the threads. John Gagen
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