Every Monday we will post an entry that hasn’t yet been published with a view towards harnessing the collective onomastic power of the internet. If you have any thoughts about the name’s origin, other variants it might be related to, other examples of its use, etc., please share them in the comments! If you wish to browse other Mystery Monday names, there is an index.
Here’s one for the Breton experts!
The prototheme is Old Breton hael ‘generous, noble’, a relatively common theme found in the names Brithael, Haelcar, Haelhoiarn, Haelnou, Haeloc, and Haelwaloe, but we don’t recognize the deuterotheme. If you have any thoughts of what it might be, please leave a comment!
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Have you considered the possibility that it might be dittographic for Hailgur or the like? Léon Maitre & Paul de Berthou, Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Sainte-Croix de Quimperlé, 2nd ed., 1904, is online here, and on p. 145 there is an entry for a Haelguri. Gur- ‘warrior, man’ is a common enough prototheme, but I don’t know how well attested it is as a deuterotheme.