The Gabay-Levy Pages
Gabay-Levy Family Tree Information
Coming Soon
The Gabay Family Cookbook
Family Name Background:
The family name Gabay:
Alternate spellings in Latin characters: Gabay, Gabbay, Gabai, Gabbai
Hebrew: גַבַי, גַבַאי
The name is clearly derived directly from the Hebrew and means a trustee or board member of a synagogue. It is also used as the word for the person who monitors the Torah reader during services to assure correct pronunciation of the reading. In modern Hebrew it is also used to mean treasurer, which would have been one of the functions of a trustee.
The name is common throughout the Sephardic world (and including the Jews of Arab countries). The name is also found in the Philippines, where it comes from the Tagalog language and appears to mean “guide,” so one can occasionally meet non-Jewish Gabays.
- Mumya -- Discovering what this old Turkish remedy really was, was a never ending mystery for me and my cousins that was not quite solved until well into adulthood.