As a real family name, 'Goodchild' can mean simply 'good child' in its modern sense, but 'child' can also have a broader application. It can in fact refer to any youth, including a servant or a page, so in this sense 'Goodchild' can also mean something like 'faithful servant'. When Tolkien toyed with the idea of giving this name to Samwise in place of 'Gamgee' (see text), he was perhaps thinking of its meaning in this broader sense.

Locating the homeland of the Goodchilds requires some detective work, though we can gain a clue by considering that Bell Goodchild married Sam's father Hamfast Gamgee. Hamfast started out in Tighfield but removed to Hobbiton, so it is safe to assume that the Goodchilds were associated with one of these two places. The question is whether he married Bell Goodchild in Tighfield before leaving, or met her in Hobbiton after arriving there.

Hamfast left Tighfield at about the age of thirty-five (that is, just having come of age in Hobbit terms). This would be in about the Shire-year 1361, and Hamfast and Bell had their first child, Hamson, in 1365. These dates aren't absolutely conclusive, but they strongly imply that the couple met and married after Hamfast arrived in Hobbiton, thus connecting the Goodchild family to that township rather than Tighfield.

Tolkien was probably right that 'Gamgee' is not originally an English name, but it is so rare as an actual surname that its etymology is difficult to discover. It is perhaps connected to 'Gamage', a marginally more common name that shares a similar geographical distribution (concentrated especially in the southeastern English county of Essex). If that is correct, it ultimately derives from Old French, probably meaning something like 'winding stream'.

Tolkien solved the problem by devising his own entirely independent (and rather more English-sounding) meaning for the name: he derives it from 'Gammidgy', describing a Hobbit from the village of Gamwich.