GAD (m): A son of the Biblical Jacob; his mother was Zilpah (maid of Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel). Jacob’s son was also ancestor of the Hebrew tribe of Gad, first mentioned in the Book of Numbers. The prophet Gad, who assisted King David, was a different man (1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Chronicles).
I have noticed a higher incidence than usual of Gads in the Connecticut Valley. Gad Hitchcock, 15 Feb. 1765–22 June 1829, son of Noah and Silence (Burt) Hitchcock lived in Brimfield, Mass.; Gad Hunt (April 14, 1773–March 13, 1835), the son of Gad and Elisabeth (Woodward) Hunt, lived in Coventry, Connecticut. Gad Cooley (1767–1854) of Lower Canada and Mooers, N.Y., was an ancestor of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Andrew Blackmun.
Eighty men in the 1800 U.S. Federal census had the first name Gad. Seventy-nine were from New England or New York. The exception was Gad Lamb Sr. of Tioga, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, but further research revealed that he had been born in Wilbraham, Mass. (in the Connecticut Valley), Nov. 9, 1744, to Daniel and Martha (Ashley) Lamb. At this early date, use of the name Gad thus strongly suggests a New England or New York origin.