Gyllenhaal can – in the history of the family – be spelled thus or Gyllenhahl. So did, the scribe of the charter of nobility of Queen Christina december 20th 1652, but to be safe he also wrote Gyllenhaal. The spelling-system was not regulated then. and “hahl” or “haal” all went back to the name of the stone-slabs of the stoneage burial monument that had given the name to the agricultural property that the first G, Nils, was running, “Hahlegaarden”, about half a mile away. Gyllenhal, with one “a”, was used by the the famous Leonard, who wrote and financed the printing of an encyclopedia of beetles, “coleoptera”. in four volumes. That had such an impact on the scientific world in that group of related subjects that he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, and a seat in the Academy. And after his death a silver medal was struck to his honor. It is from this Leonard that the American branch of the family is coming as his grandson Anders Leonard emigrated to the United States. Eventually he became an editor at Swedish-American newspapers in Chicago. One of his great-grandsons, Anders G., is exceutive editor of Miami Herald, uncle to Maggie and Jake. And they all spell the name “Gyllenhaal”!